Patient-Reported Outcomes in Thoracic Surgery: An International Survey of European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) and Japanese Association for Chest Surgery (JACS) Members

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to evaluate the progress in the collection and interpretation of patient-reported outcomes (PRO) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in thoracic surgery. METHODS: We invited all members of the European Society of Thoracic Surgeons (ESTS) and the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery (JACS) via e-mail, providing survey information in both English and Japanese. It consisted of 19 questions addressing the use of HRQoL assessment in clinical practice. RESULTS: In total, we received 234 responses: 84 from ESTS, 128 from JACS, and 22 from other societies. The present survey showed that 58.5% of surgeons have never collected HRQoL data in their practice. The EORTC-QLQ-LC29 was the most frequently used questionnaire, reported by 24.7% of participants. A total of 137 (59.6%) responses identified HRQoL as the most important PROM. As for timing of data collection, 37.1% responded most important timing of data collection was prior to adjuvant chemotherapy and 24.1% of participants rated HRQoL evaluation 6 months after surgery. CONCLUSIONS: This study successfully collected responses from thoracic surgeons in both Europe and Japan. Although still underused, these findings highlight that surgeons increasingly recognize the value of PROMs, particularly in the context of multimodal treatment.