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: Belgium 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 or palliative
care services. (Both are mentioned in the national control plan, but not in guidelines as used by healthcare professionals.) Even
though no pathways are provided, the guidelines do acknowledge the issue, saying that: “attention should be given to timely
obtaining the patient’s wishes (advance care planning ) with regard to the planning of care for advanced disease and for palliative
care”. Workshop participants stressed the importance of psychological support for carers. They also noted that supportive and
palliative care currently focuses on end of life but should be initiated at the time of diagnosis.Recommendation
Cancer registries lack clinical data. In Belgium, a clinical cancer registry could provide helpful data.
Rationale
Indicator 16: Belgium’s cancer registry and vital registration data collection systems have been evaluated as being of high and
medium quality, respectively. 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 thought that having a real-time digital
platform with information on staging would be helpful with a validated questionnaire and trained data managers.Opportunity 5
Opportunity 6