KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate the knowledge, skills, and confidence gaps affecting treatment decisions for CLL and MCL.
- Researchers noticed that targeted education is crucial for improving clinicians’ decision-making in CLL and MCL.
Recent advancements in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) and mantle cell lymphoma (MCL) have introduced new challenges for healthcare specialists in making evidence-based treatment and management decisions.
Sophie Peloquin and the team aimed to identify gaps in knowledge, skills, and confidence that affect the management of CLL and MCL. By highlighting these gaps, they seek to inform the development of targeted educational activities to improve the care of patients with these conditions.
They performed an inclusive analysis involving 224 hematologists and hemato-oncologists from France (academic settings), Germany, and the United States (academic and community settings). These participants responded to a 15-minute quantitative needs assessment survey designed to evaluate their perceived knowledge, skills, and confidence regarding various aspects of CLL and MCL treatment and management, as well as clinical case scenarios. Descriptive statistics, including cross-tabulations, and Chi-square tests were conducted to analyze the data.
About 4 areas of educational need were identified: (1) sub-optimal knowledge of treatment guidelines; (2) sub-optimal knowledge of molecular testing to inform CLL/MCL treatment decisions; (3) sub-optimal skills when making treatment decisions according to patient profile (co-morbidities, molecular testing results); and (4) challenges balancing the risk of toxicities with benefits of treatment.
Over 1/3 of the respondents reported skill gaps when selecting suitable treatment options and prescribing therapies and reported a lack of confidence to initiate and manage treatment. Larger gaps in knowledge of guidelines and skills in patient assessment were identified in MCL compared to CLL.
The study concluded that there is a significant need for continuing medical education to enhance clinicians’ knowledge of treatment guidelines and to build skills and confidence in managing complex clinical scenarios involving specific comorbidities and molecular test results, ideally through case-based learning activities.
This study was financially supported by educational research funds from Eli Lilly & Company to AXDEV Global Inc.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/39138575/
Peloquin S, Cymbalista F, Dreyling M, et al. (2024). “Knowledge, skills, and confidence gaps impacting treatment decision making in relapsed/refractory chronic lymphocytic leukemia and mantle cell lymphoma: a quantitative survey study in France, Germany, and the United States.” BMC Cancer. 2024;24(1):1003. Published 2024 Aug 13. doi:10.1186/s12885-024-12745-1
