Financial Navigation Associated With Reduced Financial Toxicity Across Eight Oncology Sites

The Lessening the Impact of Financial Toxicity (LIFT) trial evaluated tailored financial navigation at four rural and four nonrural oncology practices. This pragmatic hybrid II implementation-effectiveness trial enrolled English-speaking patients within five years of cancer diagnosis or living with advanced disease who had moderate-to-severe financial toxicity, defined by a FACIT-COST score of ≤22. The primary effectiveness outcome was change in FACIT-COST score before versus after implementation.

Of 258 patients who consented, 233 screened positive for financial toxicity, 179 received financial navigation, and 134 completed post-intervention measures; 21 died before study completion. Mean FACIT-COST scores improved from 6.6 to 14.7, an average increase of 8.1 points (SD, 10.0; P < .0001), indicating reduced financial toxicity. Improvements were reported at rural sites (6.3 points) and nonrural sites (9.3 points), both P < .0001. Participants broadly perceived the intervention as acceptable, responsive, aligned with their needs, and timely.

The findings support financial navigation as a potential component of supportive oncology care across varied practice settings. However, the abstract describes a pre–post comparison without a concurrent control group, and incomplete follow-up limits interpretation. The post-intervention mean remained within the study’s moderate-to-severe financial toxicity range. Only the abstract was available; effects on morbidity or mortality were not reported.