Cancer supportive care needs and resource use among Asian American cancer patients: Preliminary findings from a pilot patient navigation intervention, "Patient COUNTS"

Background: Cancer is the leading cause of death for Asian Americans. Patient navigation has shown benefits in enhancing cancer treatment outcomes and quality of life. Navigational needs in accessing cancer supportive care among Asian American cancer patients and how to address such needs, however, remain understudied. Asian Americans face unique language and cultural barriers in cancer care. We designed a culturally and linguistically-tailored pilot patient navigation intervention, Patient COUNTS, to better understand and address the needs of Asian American cancer patients. Objective: To examine cancer supportive care needs and resource use among patients, who participated in a pilot study that aimed to provide culturally and linguistically-tailored navigation for Asian American cancer patients. Methods: We recruited Asian American adults diagnosed with stage I-III colorectal, liver, or lung cancer from the Greater Bay Area Cancer Registry and San Francisco hospitals. Participants spoke English, Chinese, or Vietnamese and had not completed treatment. Participants were assigned a language-concordant patient navigator, who provided support for six months. This study describes participants9 cancer supportive care needs and resource use from telephone and self-administered surveys collected at baseline, three, and six months. Participants included 24 Asian Americans with cancer who completed the baseline survey, with 18 (75%) who completed at least one of the follow-up surveys. Results: Of the study sample (n=24), 63% were men, 55% were 65 years or older, and 42% did not complete high school. A majority (75%) spoke limited English; participants9 preferred language included Cantonese/Mandarin (61%), Vietnamese (26%) and English (13%). Most participants had stage I (54%) or III (42%) cancer of the lung (42%), colon (37%), or liver (21%). Across the three surveys, the most frequently reported types of needs by the 24 participants were: cancer information (83%), language translation (54%), basic resources such as financial, transportation, legal, housing, and food access resources (50%), access to healthcare (42%), and mental health (33%). Among the 18 participants who completed the three- or six-month surveys, 90% reported using one or more resources that navigators directed them to. Specifically, of the 18 patients, the most frequently used resources included healthcare (77%), basic needs (67%), language translation (56%), and mental health (28%). Conclusions: The Asian American cancer patients enrolled in Patient COUNTS, a pilot patient navigation program, had a variety of cancer supportive care needs. Findings provided preliminary support of Patient COUNTS as a promising approach to assess cancer supportive care needs and assist navigation of resources among Asian American cancer patients. These findings will inform future interventions to improve the care that Asian American cancer patients receive. Citation Format: Katarina Wang, Janice Tsoh, Carmen Ma, Ching Wong, Hoan Bui, Corina Liew, Junlin Chen, Salma Shariff-Marco, Janet N. Chu, Laura Allen, Mei-Chin Kuo, Debora L. Oh, Scarlett L Gomez, Tung T. Nguyen. Cancer supportive care needs and resource use among Asian American cancer patients: Preliminary findings from a pilot patient navigation intervention, “Patient COUNTS” [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Virtual Conference: 14th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2021 Oct 6-8. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2022;31(1 Suppl):Abstract nr PO-032.