Cancer patients' trade-offs among efficacy, toxicity, and out-of-pocket cost in the curative and noncurative setting.

ABSTRACT:

Background

When making treatment decisions, cancer patients must make trade-offs among efficacy, toxicity, and cost. However, little is known about what patient characteristics may influence these trade-offs.

Methods

A total of 400 cancer patients reviewed 2 of 3 stylized curative and noncurative scenarios that asked them to choose between 2 treatments of varying levels of efficacy, toxicity, and cost. Each scenario included 9 choice sets. Demographics, cost concerns, numeracy, and optimism were assessed. Within each scenario, we used latent class methods to distinguish groups with discrete preferences. We then used regressions with group membership probabilities as covariates to identify associations.

Results

The median age of the patients was 61 years (range, 27-90

SUBMITTER: Wong YN 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3857689 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature