Acta oncologica
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The availability of new chemotherapeutic agents has lengthened the treatment timeline for advanced cancers and increases the likelihood of receiving chemotherapy near death. Use of chemotherapy near the end of life may not benefit cancer patients. However, no population-based study has examined the determinants for continuing chemotherapy at the end of life for all ages and cancer groups as well as for a whole country. This population-based study assessed the association between continuation of chemotherapy in the last month of life and patient demographics, disease characteristics, primary physician's specialty, hospital characteristics, and healthcare resource availability at the hospital and regional levels. ⋯ The relative risk for continuation of chemotherapy in the last month of life was determined by patient demographics and disease characteristics, physician specialty, and healthcare resources at the primary hospital level.
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Taste alterations (TAs) are frequently reported by chemotherapy patients. However, research on this topic is very scarce. The etiologies of TAs are not fully known and prevalences may vary across tumour types and chemotherapy regimens. The aim of the present study was to longitudinally investigate TAs in patients with breast cancer or gynaecological cancers receiving chemotherapy, and to provide expected values for TAs for these patient populations. ⋯ The results show that TAs are an issue in breast and gynaecological cancer patients receiving different chemotherapy regimens. There is a need for a more systematic investigation of TAs in chemotherapy patients in general as well as the need to address this issue in clinical practice.
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Multicenter Study
Scalp cooling for hair preservation and associated characteristics in 1411 chemotherapy patients - results of the Dutch Scalp Cooling Registry.
Chemotherapy-induced alopecia is a frequently occurring side effect of cancer treatment with a high psychological impact which can be prevented by scalp cooling. With this multi-centre patient series we estimated the results of scalp cooling for currently used chemotherapies to provide patient information and we identified characteristics associated with the results. ⋯ Scalp cooling results as recorded in this open patient registry were positive for most regimens, justifying it's use by all eligible patients, except for those needing TAC. Lengthening infusion time may improve the results.