Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Investigation and analysis of the comprehensive unmet needs of cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: a cross-sectional study

  • Research
  • Published:
Supportive Care in Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

This study aimed to describe the level of comprehensive needs among cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors, to explore the relationship between comprehensive needs and demographic factors, and to examine the relationship between comprehensive needs and treatment variables.

Method

A cross-sectional descriptive study design was adopted. From September 2021 to July 2022, 194 cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors were recruited using a convenience sampling method in tertiary teaching hospitals in Zhejiang Province, China. The Comprehensive Needs Assessment Tool for Cancer Patients (CNAT) and questionnaires to assess demographic and clinical characteristics were used to collect data.

Results

The average comprehensive needs score for cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors was 39.2 ± 17.2. Patients reported high levels of medical care needs, knowledge information needs, hospital facilities needs and nursing needs but low levels of religious spiritual support needs, psychoemotional needs, actual support needs, and physical symptom needs. Multiple stepwise linear regression showed that age, primary caregivers, cancer type, number of immunotherapy courses and the occurrence of immune-related adverse events (irAEs) were the main factors affecting the comprehensive needs of cancer patients treated with ICIs (p < 0.05).

Conclusions

Age, primary caregivers, cancer type, number of immunotherapy treatment courses and the occurrence of irAEs are important factors affecting the comprehensive unmet needs of cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors. Nurses should perform targeted interventions according to the different situations of patients to improve the quality of care.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

Data for this study are available. Data can be provided if needed.

References

  1. Hirsch L, Zitvogel L, Eggermont A, Marabelle A (2019) PD-Loma: a cancer entity with a shared sensitivity to the PD-1/PD-L1 pathway blockade. Br J Can-cer 120(1):3–5

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Hoos A (2016) Development of immuno-oncology drugs—from CTLA4 to PD1 to the next generations. Nat Rev Drug Discovery 15(4):235–247

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. SanmamedMF ChenLP (2019) A paradigm shift in cancer immuno-therapy: from enhancement to normalization. Cell 176(3):677

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Zhao Jing Hu, Hanguang WS et al (2020) Advances in studies of immune checkpoint inhibitors in colorectal cancer. Journal of Practical Oncology 35(06):13–18

    Google Scholar 

  5. Wrobel P, Ahmed S (2019) Current status of immunotherapy in metastatic colorectal cancer. Int J Color Dis 34(1):13–25

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Postow MA, Sidlow R, Hellmann MD (2018) Immune-related adverse events associated with immune checkpoint blockade. N Engl J Med 378(2):158–168

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  7. Institute of Medicine (US) (2008) Committee on psychosocial services to cancer patients/Families in a community setting. In: Adler NE, Page AEK (eds) Cancer care for the whole patient: meeting psychosocial health needs. National Academies Press (US), Washington (DC)

    Google Scholar 

  8. Newell S, Sanson-Fisher RW, Girgis A, Ackland S (1999) The physical and psycho-social experiences of patients attending an outpatient medical oncology department: a cross-sectional study. Eur J Cancer Care (Engl) 8(2):73–82

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  9. Ping Ni, Jingli C, Na L (2010) Sample size estimation for quantitative studies in nursing studies. Chin J Nurs 45(4):378–380

    Google Scholar 

  10. Shim EJ, Lee KS, Park JH et al (2011) Comprehensive needs assessment tool in cancer (CNAT): the development and validation. Support Care Cancer 19(12):1957–1968

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  11. Shin DW, Park JH, ShimEJ. et al (2011) The development of a Comprehensive Needs Assessment Tool for cancer-caregivers inpatient-caregiver dyads. Psychooncology 20(12):1342–1352

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Xinshuang Z, Loling Z, Transozhen Li (2017) Sinicization and reliability validity test of the comprehensive needs assessment scale of cancer patients. Chin J Nurs 52(1):34–39

    Google Scholar 

  13. Jing S, Wen Y, Xiaoling W (2018) Comprehensive needs survey and analysis of elderly cancer patients. J Nurs 33(20):82–85

    Google Scholar 

  14. Hongwei S, Huaxia L, Yanchao J et al (2012) Progress in the physical and mental effects of religious psychological response on cancer patients and related factors. Nurs Res 26(17):1542–1544

    Google Scholar 

  15. Ailan C, Hairong W (2019) Research status of the supportive care needs of colorectal cancer patients in China. Chin Drug Clin 19(24):4282–4283

    Google Scholar 

  16. Baililan CJ (2021) New exploration, new challenges of-and adverse effects related to immune checkpoint inhibitor treatment. Chin J Cancer Biol Ther 28(05):419–430

    Google Scholar 

  17. Weber JS, Yang JC, Atkins MB et al (2015) Toxicities of immunotherapy for the practitioner. J Clin Oncol 33(18):2092–2099

    Article  CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  18. Sibaud V (2018) Dermatologic reactions to immune checkpoint inhibitors: skin toxicities and immunotherapy. Am J Clin Dermatol 19(3):345–361

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Zhou X, Yao Z, Bai H et al (2021) Treatment-related adverse events of PD-1 and PD-L1 inhibitor-based combination therapies in clinical trials: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Oncol 22(9):1265–1274

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Larkin J, Hodi FS, Wolchok JD (2015) Combined nivolumab and ipilimumab or monotherapy in untreated melanoma. N Engl J Med 373(13):1270–1271

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Puzanov I, Diab A, Abdallah K et al (2017) Managing toxicities associated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: consensus recommendations from the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) Toxicity Management Working Group. J Immunother Cancer 5(1):1–28

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  22. Jing Y, Yang J, Johnson DB et al (2022) Harnessing big data to characterize immune-related adverse events. Nat Rev Clin On-col 19(4):269–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  23. Qian Z, Ruixiang C, Jin W et al (2022) Meta-analysis of the association with efficacy of immune-related adverse effects in NSCLC with NSCIs. Pharm China 33(6):745–752

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors thank all lung cancer patients who participated in this study and all those who contributed to this study.

Funding

This study was supported by the Jiaxing City Science and Technology Program Project, number 2022AD10019.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nursing, Medical College, Jiaxing University, No.899, Guangdome Road, Nanhu District, Jiaxing, 314001, Zhejiang Province, China

    Xiaoyan Luo, Renshan Cui, Haiying Jiang & li Zhou

  2. Department of Medical Oncology, The First Hospital of Jiaxing, Jiaxing, China

    Ningning Zhang

  3. School of Nursing, Liaoning University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shenyang, China

    Xue Wang

Authors
  1. Xiaoyan Luo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Renshan Cui
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Ningning Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Haiying Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. li Zhou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Xue Wang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Xiaoyan Luo: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis,Data curation,

Writing—original draft.

Renshan Cui: review, editing, Supervision,Funding acquisition.

Ningning Zhang:Provide the data collection site, data collection, questionaire translation.

Haiying Jiang and Li Zhou: language support, revising and check up the paper.

Xue Wang: reviewed and polished the revised paper.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Renshan Cui.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

It does not apply because the study is only a survey-class study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 20 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Luo, X., Cui, R., Zhang, N. et al. Investigation and analysis of the comprehensive unmet needs of cancer patients treated with immune checkpoint inhibitors: a cross-sectional study. Support Care Cancer 31, 460 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07911-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-023-07911-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation