Towards personalized treatment decision-making in Oncology

This project aims to improve personalized decision-making in oncological care by implementing the Integrated Oncological Decision-making Model (IODM) within oncological care pathways. In addition, the project seeks to gain in-depth insight into patients’ needs and experiences regarding treatment decision-making over time and across different care pathways. The ultimate goal is to better align treatment decisions with the individual patient.

The project was conducted within four oncological care pathways: hematology, neuro-oncology, upper gastrointestinal oncology, and ovarian cancer.

The project started with a longitudinal follow-up of patients in the carepath (shadowen), including  observations of consultations and multidisciplinary team meetings (MDTs), to gain insight into how treatment decision-making unfolds in daily clinical practice. Subsequently, multiple co-creation sessions were organized within each care pathway, involving experienced patients, physicians, nurses, and other healthcare professionals. During these sessions, barriers were explored and tools and strategies were selected and adapted to the local context of each care pathway.

The developed tools and strategies were then implemented in routine clinical practice and evaluated based on the experiences of both patients and healthcare professionals. This provided insight into the feasibility, acceptability, and perceived added value of these tools for personalized decision-making.

The IPTO consortium (Improving Personalized Treatment in Oncology) is a collaboration between four oncological centers. Researchers from various fields of expertise work together on the IPTO study, focusing on the improvement of personalized treatment decision-making in oncology. The consortium brings together expertise in areas such as shared decision-making, clinical oncology, and implementation- and patient-centered care.

The following individuals were members of this consortium:

• Ilana F. Aaronson
• Leander L. van Baalen
• Leti van Bodegom-Vos
• Suzanne Festen
• Vera C. Hanewinkel
• Jesse Jansen
• Kon-Siong G. Jie
• Anne-Marie Koch
• Christiaan J.S.A. Kramer
• Barbara L. van Leeuwen
• Floor M. van Nuenen
• Anne M. Stiggelbout
• Thanee M. Uittenhout
• Hanneke van der Wal
• Trudy van der Weijden

• Lieke Welling

   

The research was conducted in collaboration with: 

• Maastricht Universitair Medisch Centrum+ (MUMC+)
• Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum (LUMC)
• Haaglanden Medisch Centrum (HMC)
• Zuyderland Medisch Centrum
• Universitair Medisch Centrum Groningen (UMCG).

Uittenhout TM, Jansen J, Jie KS, Welling L, van Leeuwen BL, van Bodegom-Vos L, Stiggelbout AM, van der Weijden T; on behalf of the IPTO Consortium. Tools and strategies to integrate multi-domain information for personalized decision-making in oncological care pathways: a scoping review. J Multidiscip Healthc. 2024;17:4223–4242. doi:10.2147/JMDH.S460499.
https://doi.org/10.2147/JMDH.S460499

van der Wal-Huisman H, van Leeuwen BL, Stiggelbout AM, van Nuenen FM, van der Weijden T, Festen S, Welling L; IPTO Consortium, the scientific members of the IPTO Consortium. Integrated oncological treatment decision-making: Creating a practice of patient-centred decision-making. Patient Educ Couns. 2025 Feb;131:108555. doi: 10.1016/j.pec.2024.108555. Epub 2024 Nov 17. PMID: 39579519.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2024.108555