Aims/Background: Patients with advanced lung cancer experience substantial symptom burden and emotional distress, highlighting the need for improved palliative models. This retrospective study aimed to analyze the impact of a multidisciplinary collaborative palliative care model on the quality of life and medical costs in patients with advanced lung cancer. Methods: This retrospective study enrolled 280 patients with advanced lung cancer who received palliative care at Wenzhou Central Hospital. Patients were divided into two groups based on the care they received: a group receiving routine palliative care (routine care group) and another group receiving multidisciplinary collaborative palliative care (multidisciplinary care group). Changes in depression, anxiety, quality of life scores Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung Cancer Subscale (FACT-LCS), Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung total outcome index (FACT-L TOI), sleep quality score Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), overall well-being score General Well-Being (GWB) scale, and medical costs (daily and total costs) were compared between the two groups before and after the intervention. Results: After the intervention, the multidisciplinary care group had significantly lower symptoms of depression and anxiety compared to the routine care group (p < 0.05); significantly higher scores in all dimensions of FACT-L, FACT-LCS, and FACT-L TOI (p < 0.05); and a significantly lower PSQI score and a considerably higher GWB score (p < 0.05). Furthermore, the average daily costs and total medical expenses were lower in the multidisciplinary care group than in the routine care group (p < 0.05). Conclusion: A multidisciplinary collaborative palliative care model can significantly reduce negative emotions, enhance quality of life and overall well-being, improve sleep quality, and effectively reduce medical expenses in patients with advanced lung cancer, demonstrating high clinical application value.
Xu et al. (Fri,) studied this question.