Patient versus clinician preferences for chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer

Decisions about systemic treatment options for non-small-cell lung cancer are becoming increasingly complex for both patients and clinicians, and involve trade-offs between the benefits, harms and inconveniences of treatments. These trade-offs result in an individual’s (e.g., a patient or clinician) preference for a treatment. Optimal clinical decision-making about an individual’s cancer treatment is ideally shared between the patient and their clinician(s), but this requires clinicians to understand their patient’s preferences, as well as their own. Patients’ preferences for chemotherapy often differ from those of clinicians’, with patients generally needing smaller survival benefits, or accepting more toxicity, to make chemotherapy worthwhile. This review summarizes and compares recent studies of patients’ and clinicians’ preferences for chemotherapy in non-small-cell lung cancer, to help clinicians and their patients make more informed and patient-centered decisions about chemotherapy.

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