Addressing Medication Non-Compliance and Financial Toxicity in Patients with Gynecologic Cancer
“[Drug adherence] seems like a problem we could potentially solve or, at least, make much better, and we are not really doing enough right now to do that.”
In this episode of “The Vitals,” we spoke with Kate Esselen, MD, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, about patients with gynecologic cancer who don’t comply with prescribed treatment in response to financial distress or toxicity.
Dr. Esselen is the corresponding author on the study, titled “Evaluating Meaningful Levels of Financial Toxicity in Gynecologic Cancers,” which was published in the International Journal of Gynecologic Cancer. The data found that nearly half of patients with gynecologic cancer experienced some degree of financial distress and that patients with severe financial toxicity were significantly more likely to engage in behavioral cost-coping by medication non-compliance (adjusted risk ratio, 4.6; 95% CI, 1.2-18.1).
