Financial Navigation Not Associated With Reduced Financial Hardship
Key Takeaways:
- Patient outreach efforts remain challenging: Only 26.2% of patients with cancer contacted for financial navigation were enrolled in the study.
- Financial navigation was not associated with improvements in financial hardship or quality of life, with similar outcomes observed across all 3 study groups.
- Additional research is needed: Future studies should develop more effective outreach strategies and financial navigation programs for patients with cancer.
Financial hardship remains a significant challenge for patients with cancer. Financial navigation, or programs that assist patients in finding financial assistance, is a proposed strategy to provide relief. However, its real-world effectiveness remains unknown.
Researchers conducted a study to observe the effects of proactive financial navigation on cancer-related financial hardship and quality of life.
The researchers developed 3 different interventions:
- Brief Intervention: One outreach and 6 months of navigation
- Extended Intervention: Three outreaches and 6 months of navigation
- Enhanced usual care
After 12 months, financial hardship was assessed using the InCharge Financial Distress and Financial Well-Being Scale. Quality of life was also observed with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General-7 Item Version (FACT-G7).
Patient Characteristics
Among patients who received outreach, only 26.2% (371 patients) were enrolled in the study.
Most participants were White (63.9%). Approximately 10.7% of the patients were Hispanic, 8.7% were Asian, 8.5% were Black, and 8.2% identified as other or multiple races.
The most common cancer types were breast cancer (37.7%) and prostate cancer (14.6%).
Financial Hardship and Quality of Life
Financial navigation was not associated with improvements in financial hardship. Mean financial hardship scores were similar across the study groups: 7.39 for the brief intervention group, 6.34 for the extended intervention group, and 6.69 for the enhanced usual care group.
Quality of life was also similar among cohorts. The brief intervention cohort had a FACT-G7 score of 19.1, extended intervention had a score of 19.0, and enhanced usual care had a score of 19.2.
Implications for Oncology Care
The findings suggest that proactive financial navigation, as implemented in this study, was not associated with improvements in financial hardship or quality of life among patients with cancer. The low enrollment rate may also highlight a need for more effective patient outreach strategies to better engage patients who may benefit from financial assistance.
The authors noted, “Continued research on strategies to address the urgent problem of cancer-related financial hardship is needed.”
Reference
Henrikson NB, Anderson ML, Dickerson J, et al. Financial navigation for people newly diagnosed with cancer: primary outcomes from the cancer financial experience randomized trial. JCO Oncol Pract. 2025;21(12):1817-1829. doi:10.1200/OP-25-00874
