The American journal of hospice & palliative care
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Apr 2007
ReviewRecent advances in the palliative management of respiratory symptoms in advanced-stage oncology patients.
Advanced-stage malignancies are often characterized by systemic complications related to primary tumor progression. Pulmonary complications such as cough and dyspnea are relatively common and can dramatically reduce quality of life and lead to inpatient or intensive care unit admission. ⋯ Dyspnea can arise from a range of etiologies that may or may not be related to the underlying malignant pulmonary disease. Recent advances in the management of malignant pleural effusion, central airway obstruction, and superior vena cava syndrome have allowed relatively noninvasive interventions to be performed that can significantly reduce dyspnea, minimize inpatient hospitalization, and improve the quality of life in patients where the major focus is palliative care.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Apr 2007
ReviewOn how increasing numbers of newer cancer therapies further delay referral to hospice: the increasing palliative care imperative.
Delay in referral of cancer patients to hospice until very near the end of life may deny patients and families optimal palliative care. A variety of factors may contribute to these delays. This article describes how the proliferation of newer anticancer therapies, although desirable overall, may further increase these delays. It is important for hospice personnel to understand these changes in medical oncology and to work to optimize palliative care delivery concomitantly with disease-remitting therapies.
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Am J Hosp Palliat Care · Feb 2007
Randomized Controlled Trial Controlled Clinical TrialA prospective randomized study of corticosteroids as adjuvant drugs to opioids in advanced cancer patients.
This randomized controlled study evaluated the role of corticosteroids as adjuvants to opioid therapy in 76 advanced cancer patients with pain who requiring strong opioids. Patients were divided in 2 groups. Group O received conventional opioid treatment. ⋯ Corticosteroids did not provide significant additional analgesia to opioids, but persistently decreased opioid-related gastrointestinal symptoms for the patients with limited survival and improved the sense of well-being for some weeks. Corticosteroid-related toxicity was minimal. Further studies with an increased sample size are necessary to detect any minimal difference in analgesia between the two groups.
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People who are older than 65 years of age are the fastest growing segment of the United States population. With the projected exponential increase in the number of elderly patients and the increasing burden of chronic disease, the number of elderly patients who will require treatment in an intensive care unit is expected to increase. ⋯ However, an analysis of available data suggests that functional elderly patients have a favorable "long-term" outcome after intensive care unit admission. This suggests that age alone should not be used in making intensive care unit triage decisions.
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Spiritual needs, spiritual distress, and spiritual well-being of patients with terminal illnesses can affect their quality of life. The spiritual needs of patients with advanced cancer have not been widely studied. This study assessed the spiritual needs of 90 patients with advanced cancer who were newly admitted to hospice home care. ⋯ Being with family was the most frequently cited need (80%), and 50% cited prayer as frequently or always a need. The most frequently cited unmet need was attending religious services. Results suggest the importance of a focus on the spiritual more than the religious in providing care to patients at the end of life.