Patient Navigation to Improve Early Access to Supportive Care for Patients with Advanced Cancer in Resource-Limited Settings: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Enrique Soto Pérez de CelisYanin Chavarri-GuerraWendy Alicia Ramos-LopezJacqueline Alcalde-CastroAlfredo Covarrubias-GomezÁfrica Navarro-LaraPaulina Quiroz-FriedmanSofía Sánchez-RománNatasha Alcocer-CastillejosJosé Carlos Aguilar-VelazcoAlexandra BukowskiJuan Alberto Chávarri-MaldonadoSergio Contreras-GarduñoLindsay KrushItoro InoyoAndrea Medina-CamposMaría Luisa Moreno-GarcíaViridiana Perez-MontessoroMaría T BourlonRoberto de la Peña-LopezHéctor de la Mora-MolinaEucario León-RodriguezAlejandro MoharPaul E GossPublished in: The oncologist (2020)
The early implementation of supportive care in oncology is recommended by international guidelines, but this might be difficult to achieve in resource-limited settings. This randomized clinical trial including 134 Mexican patients with advanced cancer demonstrates that a multidisciplinary patient navigation intervention can improve the early access to supportive and palliative care interventions, increase advance care planning, and reduce symptoms compared with usual oncologist-guided care alone. These results demonstrate that patient navigation represents a potentially useful solution to achieve the adequate implementation of supportive and palliative care in resource-limited settings globally.