For cancer patients, information about their own prognosis is extremely important information that influences treatment policies and various decision-making.So far, among prognostic information, whether cancer patients want to know "how long they can live (life prognosis)" has been investigated worldwide.However, no survey has been conducted on whether cancer patients want to know the prognosis of physical function (functional prognosis) such as "until when can they walk" and "until when can they eat".
In February 2022, a group from the University of Tsukuba conducted the world's first survey of cancer patients' intentions and related factors regarding knowing their functional prognosis.The subjects were cancer patients in Japan, and an anonymous Internet survey format was used, and responses were obtained from 2 cancer patients.
As a result of the survey, 26.6% of cancer patients wanted to know their life prognosis, whereas cancer patients who wanted to know their functional prognosis asked, "How long can I talk properly (conversation prognosis)?" 46.9%, 43.1% answered "How long can you eat deliciously?"
In addition, as a factor related to prognostic information that cancer patients want to know, they tend to want to know life prognosis, exercise prognosis, and conversation prognosis if they have experienced the death of a close person to cancer. It turned out to be
From the above, cancer patients want to know the functional prognosis rather than the vital prognosis in order to think about how long they can continue their daily lives and work. , indicating the possibility of wanting to know more prognostic information.
In the future, it will be necessary to consider not only the life prognosis of cancer patients but also the method of predicting the functional prognosis, and to consider how to convey information according to the degree that the patient wants to know.