Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
ReviewNLP for Analyzing Electronic Health Records and Clinical Notes in Cancer Research: A Review.
This review examines the application of natural language processing (NLP) techniques in cancer research using electronic health records (EHRs) and clinical notes. It addresses gaps in existing literature by providing a broader perspective than previous studies focused on specific cancer types or applications. A comprehensive literature search in the Scopus database identified 94 relevant studies published between 2019 and 2024. ⋯ While NLP techniques show significant potential in analyzing EHRs and clinical notes for cancer research, future work should focus on improving model generalizability, enhancing robustness in handling complex clinical language, and expanding applications to understudied cancer types. The integration of NLP tools into palliative medicine and addressing ethical considerations remain crucial for utilizing the full potential of NLP in enhancing cancer diagnosis, treatment, and patient outcomes. This review provides valuable insights into the current state and future directions of NLP applications in cancer research.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
Acute Care Use and Prognosis in Older Adults Presenting to the Emergency Department.
Understanding how prognosis influences acute care use among older adults at risk of short-term mortality is essential for providing care consistent with patients' wishes. This study assesses whether prognosis is associated with acute care and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) transfer in older adults presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) at high and low risk of short-term mortality. ⋯ The prognosis of older adults, especially those at high risk of short-term mortality, predicts both inpatient admissions and ICU transfers.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
Arts in Medicine for the Reduction of Pain and Stress in Cancer Patients During Chemotherapy.
Rates of pain and stress are found in greater numbers in cancer patients than in the general population. Cancer patients often are concerned about unwanted side effects that can arise from taking medications to lower their pain and stress. As doctors are reaching for evidence-based, nonpharmaceutical, adjunct modalities, previous research indicates that visual art-making shows promise to help improve perceptions of pain and stress caused by a cancer diagnosis and treatment. ⋯ This suggests that a watercolor visual arts intervention is a viable and feasible nonpharmaceutical complementary alternative to opioid prescriptions for pain management.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2025
Malignant hematologic oncology referrals to an outpatient palliative care clinic at a tertiary cancer center.
Hematological malignancies represent a heterogeneous group of diseases with variable and often unpredictable illness trajectories. Comparisons between hematological and solid tumor malignancy referrals to an outpatient palliative care clinic have not been explored. ⋯ Patients with hematological malignancies experience at least similar symptom burden to those with solid tumor malignancies referred to a palliative care clinic, and worse performance status, factors that should be considered when designing palliative care clinic interventions for patients with hematological malignancies.