BREATHING IN A NEW ERA
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF LUNG CANCER POLICIES ACROSS EUROPE
Multidisciplinary care teams are important to ensure the co-ordination of complex care
requirements.^69 Ideally, these teams involve a mix of health professionals to ensure that the physical,
emotional and psychological needs of patients are met. However, poor implementation can be due
to limited resources, (competing) professional hierarchies and a lack of communication between
team members.^70 Effective multidisciplinary teams tend to be organised around a regularly scheduled
meeting where a range of patients are discussed.^26
Multidisciplinary care teams guide patient treatment in eight of our eleven countries. Austria,
Finland and Spain do not include a discussion on the role of these teams in guidelines. Finally, training in
supportive and palliative care for oncologists is available in seven of our 11 countries: Belgium, Finland,
Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the UK.Fresh thinking: opportunities for
improvementAccess to radiotherapy needs to improve.
All countries have more demand than supply.
Although much talk in lung cancer care is about
the potential of new drug therapies, radiotherapy
remains the backbone of cancer treatment for
most people. Investment in radiologists and
radiotherapy equipment is needed.
Access inconsistencies for biomarkers. Many
European countries fund an expensive drug but
not the inexpensive biomarker to identify when
that drug would be useful. Access to biomarker
testing is an important step to ensure that lung
cancer patients receive appropriate treatment.
Be proactive in managing innovation. Access
to new treatments can be a challenge even forhighly resourced countries. A balance needs to be
achieved between sustainability and availability
along with a public discussion on costs. Access to
clinical studies and compassionate use can help to
alleviate some of the pressure in the short term. In
the longer term, it is important that stakeholders
work together to ensure that medications are
available in an equitable manner. This is likely to
require innovative funding mechanisms, probably
with some risk sharing.
Think beyond the tumour. Lung cancer takes
a terrible toll on patients and their families. While
there is often much anticipation about the arrival
of a new medication or technology, patients and
their loved ones will always need psychological,
palliative and supportive care. Healthcare
professionals should be trained to recognise this
need, and clear referral pathways to specialist help
should be provided.