Recommendation
Ensure that the psychological burden faced by lung cancer patients is addressed with pathways to access psychological support
services. Supportive and palliative care should be included in the lung cancer guidelines.
Rationale
Indicators 14 & 15: Spain neither includes psychological assessment nor mentions the psychological burden of lung cancer in their
lung cancer guidelines. Additionally, there is no referral pathway for either psychological support or supportive and palliative
care services. Workshop participants noted that while cancer-focussed psychological services work well in some hospitals, there
is variation between regions. Some variation is due to differences in reimbursement for psychological support services, which has
limited the way in which they have been integrated into patient care. Patient organisations strongly support a uniform delivery
of psychological assistance for cancer patients. Workshop participants noted that a well-defined national palliative care strategy
exists in Spain but it is not specifically detailed for lung cancer.Recommendation
Cancer registries lack clinical data. In Spain, a clinical cancer registry could provide helpful data.
Rationale
Indicator 16: Spain’s cancer registry has been evaluated to be at a high quality at a regional basis (though not at a national
base), while its vital registration data collection systems have been evaluated as being of medium quality. Additionally, clinicians
have suggested that a stronger clinical component to the cancer registry could help to improve the overall care that lung cancer
patients receive. Workshop participants noted that the most important challenge is to link electronic data in clinical records with
population-based cancer registries.Opportunity 5
Opportunity 6