Collaborating on Lung Cancer Treatment Decisions With Your Team

Collaborating on Lung Cancer Treatment Decisions With Your Team

Collaborating on Lung Cancer Treatment Decisions With Your Team from Patient Empowerment Network on Vimeo.

Lung cancer specialist Dr. Tejas Patil discusses why active communication between patients and their healthcare team is essential when making care and treatment decisions.

Dr. Tejas Patil is an academic thoracic oncologist at the University of Colorado Cancer Center focused on targeted therapies and novel biomarkers in lung cancer. Learn more about Dr. Patil, here.

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Transcript:

Katherine:

Where does shared decision-making come into play? When does it come into play?  

Dr. Patil:

It comes in always.   

So, shared decision-making is one of the most important things that patients can do with their providers. It’s really important when we think about treatments to not just be very cookie cutter and follow a recipe book for managing a patient’s lung cancer. It’s really important to individualize therapy. This is really important where patients’ values come in. What patients want to do with the time that they have, and what patients want to do with the treatment? How do they want to take certain treatments?  

So, for example, I have a patient who’s a violinist and was faced with the possibility of receiving a type of clinical trial, but this trial caused neuropathy or numbness or tingling and would essentially render this patient unable to play the violin. This was an unacceptable treatment option for this patient, even though the data would suggest that it would work.  

And that’s an example of where shared decision-making comes in because it’s more than just treating numbers. It’s really about taking care of people. 

Katherine:

Yeah. Why is active communication between the patient and lung cancer team so important? 

Dr. Patil:

Active communication is really important because it’s really one of the easiest ways for things — So, a breakdown of communication rather is a one of the easiest ways for gaps to occur in care. And when there is active communication, when a patient feels like they have an opportunity to reach their team members to connect with their providers, it builds trust. And I think trust is one of the more important elements in the management of patients. If patients can trust their provider and trust that their judgment is sound, then there is more likely to be a harmonious relationship that facilitates the shared decision-making.  

Katherine:

When a patient is in active lung cancer treatment, how are they monitored? 

Dr. Patil:

So, patients are monitored in a variety of ways. If they’re receiving chemotherapy or immunotherapy, typically a provider will see the patient with each infusion cycle. And so, depending on the length of time and the schedule of infusions, that sort of dictates how frequently we see our patients. When patients are receiving targeted therapies, specifically the pill-based forms, they can be monitored in concordance with the NCCN guidelines. And in my practice, I typically see patients every three months with imaging.  

Now, if patients are having a hard time tolerating treatment, so they’re taking their oral pills but for whatever reason, we’re having a ton of side effects, we’re trying to figure out the dose. I might see my patients more frequently. But as a standard, if patients are tolerating their targeted treatment well, their scans look good, I usually see them every three months.