What do adjuvant and metastatic cancer patients expect from their treatment, palliative care, and physicians? Results of a German survey on 607 patients.

e20658 Background: This study analyzes quality of life aspects, expectations and needs of cancer patients with special focus on doctor-patient communication. Methods: A questionnaire of 17 questions was developed, validated and administered to cancer patients in a print-version. Results: A total of 607 patients with a medium age of 67 years were interviewed, whereas 51.2% women and 46.8% men. The most common cancer types were: colon (21.3%), breast (17.1%), lung (8.4%), haematological (8.4%), prostata (5.1%), pancreas (4.6%), stomach (3.5%), ovary (2.8%) or other origins (28.8%). 21.9% of the patients were treated with the intention of cure, 78.1% had a metastatic disease. The investigation was done during patients received commonly chemotherapy, targeted or supportive treatment, and after surgery, radiation or cytostatic pretreatment. Therapy associated toxicity reflected mostly in fatigue (50.9%), alopecia (41%), vomiting/emesis (37.4%), anemia (32.2%), polyneuropathy (20.9%), pain (22.2%), dyspnea (17....