A study entirely developed in Lanzarote concludes that 90% of cancer patients prefer to have quality of life before living longer, although most expect to achieve both objectives with their treatments.
In the research article, entitled "Agreement between the expectations and preferences of patients and the evaluation criteria of the European Medicines Agency", the expectations and preferences of 29 cancer patients from the José Molina Orosa Hospital are analyzed with respect to the medicines and treatments they receive.
“This type of document can help regulatory agencies that authorize the use of medicines improve their evaluation criteria based on the expectations and preferences of patients”, points out Manuel David Gil Sierra, first author of the publication.
In addition, the researcher argues that “increasing the prognosis and quality of life of these patients should be the main objectives when approving antineoplastic drugs”, although he insists that the use of antitumor treatments should be treated with caution, due to the important adverse reactions and the economic impact that they could have.
Added to this problem is the scarcity of data related to the effect of new cancer therapies in terms of quality of life, so "the authorization of new therapies in clinical scenarios with a good prognosis could be understood", in order to speed up access to drugs.
Manuel David Gil, María del Pilar Briceño, Ángel Jesús Arias and Santiago Martín began to develop the study during the first months of the pandemic, but it was last March when it was published in the journal Farmacia Hospitalaria.
“This shows that even in difficult times, such as the 'hard confinement', activities can be carried out to assess patients' opinions”, says Gil Sierra.
