Practice Patterns of Medical Oncologists: A Survey of Advance Care Planning in the Outpatient Setting

Introduction. Advance care planning (ACP) is an important part of cancer care. We determined the ACP practice patterns of medical oncologists at our academic cancer centre in Canada. Methods. Medical oncologists were invited to participate in a questionnaire in August 2019. Questions were validated by a local survey expert. Twelve multiple-choice questions were included. Results. Seventeen of the 23 eligible oncologists responded. 64% were male, and 76% were in practice for <16 years. Common tumour sites treated by respondents included breast (53%), lung (24%), gastrointestinal (24%), and genitourinary (24%) cancers. Oncologists responded that components of ACP included designating a substitute decision-maker (100%), determining goals of care (100%), making decisions about cardiopulmonary resuscitation (94%), and disposition of property/finances (88%). They discuss ACP with curable vs. incurable patients 6% vs. 93% of the time. While 88% of oncologists reported it would be desirable to initiate ACP discussions in the first 3 visits, in the incurable setting, only 29% reported doing so. Patient characteristics that prompt oncologists to discuss ACP in the first 3 visits in the curative vs. incurable settings include elderly age (23% vs. 59%), poor performance status (47% vs. 88%), and short prognosis (47% vs. 88%). Oncologists thought the most appropriate time to discuss ACP in the curative setting was at the time the patient initiates it (35%), and during visits 2-3 in the incurable setting (41%). The most common barriers to discussing ACP include insufficient time (71%) and too much information for the patient (71%). Conclusions. While medical oncologists believe that discussing ACP with cancer patients in the first few outpatient visits is important, this seldom occurs due to the presence of several barriers.