Leah Lawrence

Cancer Nursing Today nonprod

Patients referred for chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapy had an overly optimistic perception of their disease prognosis and high rates of psychological distress, according to a study published in Cancer.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;Patient&rsquo;s perception of their prognosis is essential for medical decision&#8208;making, especially in the context of uncertainty,&rdquo; study researchers explained. &ldquo;Although CAR T&#8208;cell therapy is potentially curative, treatment may coincide with life&#8208;threatening toxicities. &hellip; Furthermore, nearly half of all patients receiving CAR T&#8208;cell therapy experience disease progression.&rdquo;&nbsp;The researchers conducted a cross-sectional study of 102 patients receiving CAR T-cell therapy for a hematologic malignancy and assessed quality of life, anxiety, and depression symptoms as well as prognostic awareness.&nbsp;&nbsp;Of the 102 patients enrolled, about one-third (34%) reported being told by their oncologist that their cancer is curable. About two-thirds (64%) reported being told that there was a greater than 50% change of cure.&nbsp;&nbsp;Results indicated that a substantial minority of patients receiving CAR T cell therapy experienced clinically significant psychological distress, the researchers wrote. Clinically significant depression was reported in 26% of patients, anxiety in 30%, and posttraumatic stress disorder in 21%.&nbsp;&nbsp;There was no association identified between a patients&rsquo; understanding of prognosis and quality of life or mood. However, higher emotional coping with prognosis was linked to better quality of life (P&lt;.001) and low depression (P&lt;.001), anxiety (P&lt;.001), and PTSD (P&lt;.001) symptoms.&nbsp;Additionally, higher adaptive response&mdash;the ability to use prognostic awareness to inform life decisions&mdash;was associated with better quality of life (P=.028) and lower depression (P=.023), anxiety (P=&lt;.001), and PTSD (P&lt;.001) symptoms.&nbsp;&nbsp;&ldquo;These findings underscore the need for interventions that enhance CAR&#8208;T patients&rsquo; prognostic understanding and effective coping to improve QOL and alleviate psychological distress in this patient population,&rdquo; concluded the researchers.&nbsp;&nbsp;<h3>Reference</h3><a href="https://acsjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/cncr.34557" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Perception of prognosis, quality of life, and distress in patients receiving chimeric antigen receptor T-cell therapy</a>.

CAR T-Cell Referral Linked With High Psychological Distress

Treatment

Prognostic understanding is essential to medical decision-making, but are these patients' hopes too high?