Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2012
Longitudinal follow-up study using the distress and impact thermometer in an outpatient chemotherapy setting.
Although the combined use of the Impact Thermometer (IT) with the Distress Thermometer (DT), DIT, is reported to be a validated screening tool for clinically significant psychological distress in cancer patients, its longitudinal changes in the outpatient chemotherapy setting have not been examined. ⋯ The distress evaluated by DIT can change on sequential measurements within short time intervals. Further study is needed to determine the appropriate use of the DIT for the screening and monitoring of psychological distress in an outpatient chemotherapy setting.
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Therapeutic Reviews aim to provide essential independent information for health professionals about drugs used in palliative and hospice care. Additional content is available on www.palliativedrugs.com. Country-specific books (Hospice and Palliative Care Formulary USA, and Palliative Care Formulary, British and Canadian editions) are also available and can be ordered from www.palliativedrugs.com. The series editors welcome feedback on the articles (hq@palliativedrugs.com).
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2012
Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter StudyDoes health-related quality of life improve for advanced pancreatic cancer patients who respond to gemcitabine? Analysis of a randomized phase III trial of the cancer and leukemia group B (CALGB 80303).
Gemcitabine for advanced pancreatic cancer (APC) is palliative and the prognosis is poor, making health-related quality of life (HRQOL) particularly important. ⋯ Response to gemcitabine treatment in APC is not associated with appreciable improvement of global HRQOL. Small improvements in pain and mood are observed despite progressive functional decline. Those who respond to gemcitabine may experience a slight slowing of functional deterioration.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2012
ReviewSystematic review of the primary research on minority ethnic groups and end-of-life care from the United Kingdom.
Patients from minority ethnic groups experience lower rates of referrals to end-of-life (EoL) care services, higher levels of dissatisfaction with services, and perceive some services as culturally inappropriate. ⋯ The results highlight the multiple and related factors that contribute to low service use and substandard quality of services experienced by minority ethnic groups, and the need for authors to clarify what they mean by "culturally competent" EoL care. The synthesis of diverse and disparate studies underpins a number of key recommendations for health care professionals and policymakers. Tackling these epidemiological, demographic, institutional, social, and cultural factors will require a systematic and organization-wide approach rather than the current piecemeal and reactive interventions.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Feb 2012
Identification of factors associated with fatigue in advanced cancer: a subset analysis of the European palliative care research collaborative computerized symptom assessment data set.
This is a subset analysis of fatigue data and associated clinical variables collected as part of the European Palliative Care Research Collaborative Computerized Symptom Assessment (CSA) study. The overall aim of CSA was to determine the prevalence of common symptoms in a mixed advanced cancer group using an electronic data collection system. ⋯ Severe fatigue is linked with treatment history and hemoglobin levels rather than CRP, mood, and other common symptoms in a mixed advanced cancer group.