Investigation on status of lung cancer cough management and concept and practice of lung cancer cough management in Chinese medical providers

Abstract

Objective: Investigate the current situation of lung cancer cough diagnosis and treatment and the awareness of related issues among Chinese medical providers. Methods: Doctors, nurses, pharmacists from the oncology department, respiratory department, or general department were investigated using an electronic questionnaire from January 29 to March 29, 2021. There were 25 questions about lung cancer in the questionnaire. The questionnaire was including the most common accompanying symptoms in patients with lung cancer, the incidence of lung cancer-related cough, the assessment of the proportion of central antitussive drugs, and the commonly used central antitussives. Results: Questionnaires from 2 424 medical providers were collected from 402 hospitals in 21 provincial administrative units. Cough was the most common symptom in lung cancer. Most physicians believed that the incidence of lung cancer-related cough was 51%~75%, while the proportion of patients satisfied with the treatment was only 11%~20%. The evaluation of lung cancer-related cough was seriously insufficient. The leading cause of lung cancer-related cough was tumors. And the main problem was the inadequate antitussive effect of drugs in lung cancer-related cough management. The proportion of central antitussive medication usage in the secondary and tertiary hospitals was 93.9% and 92.0%, significantly higher than 75.0% in Primary hospitals (χ²=8.390, P=0.015). The proportion of the physicians who underhanded that codeine is at risk of addiction was 76.6% and 72.0% in the secondary and tertiary hospitals, which were significantly higher than 53.9% in Primary hospitals (χ²=9.240, P=0.010). In different occupations, the proportions of doctors and pharmacists who knew the risk of addicting to codeine were 73.0% and 82.6%, which were significantly higher than the 66.4% of nurses (χ²=21.200, P<0.001). The Chinese medical providers were lack of training about the basic knowledge of using central antitussive medication. Conclusions: The proportion of patients who were satisfied with the effect of cough treatment is low. The medical staff did not have enough awareness of this. There was an urgent need to develop a consensus and standardize lung cancer cough diagnosis and treatment in China.