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Treatment decision-making in cancer care requires that both patient and clinician are well-informed about the clinical case and personal situation at hand. To support this process, patients can make use of decision aids, but, unfortunately, such tools tend to be generic and lack personalized explanations about treatment options and associated statistics (e.g., life expectancy, or risks of side effects). Moreover, such cancer statistics are difficult to understand for patients and are not always communicated in a patient-friendly way.
In this project, we are trying to tackle these issues by (1) analyzing the data of millions of Dutch cancer patients (from the Netherlands Cancer Registry and PROFILES registry) in order to estimate personalized information about treatment options, and (2) investigating how to communicate such personalized treatment information to cancer patients, with the aim of facilitating shared decision-making between patient and clinician.
The project is a collaboration between the Department of Communication and Cognition (TSHD) and The Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organization (IKNL), and funded by the TiU IMPACT Program.