Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
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Support Care Cancer · Nov 2021
I'm here because I was told to come: a study of cancer patients' reasons for attending the emergency department.
Patients with cancer are seen frequently in emergency departments (EDs). It has been proposed that many of these visits are preventable, but the patient perspective has not been well-studied. ⋯ The minority of patients made the decision to seek ED care by themselves. While the majority did not believe emergency care was avoidable, those who did had cogent suggestions to that end. Patient's assessments of their own need had high agreement with ED providers' evaluations.
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Support Care Cancer · Nov 2021
Clinical assessment of chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy: a discrete choice experiment of patient preferences.
Up to 40% of cancer patients treated with neurotoxic chemotherapies experience chemotherapy-induced peripheral neuropathy (CIPN). Currently, there is no gold standard assessment tool for CIPN and there is little information in the literature on patient preferences for such assessments. This study aims to address this gap by identifying the features of a CIPN assessment tool that cancer patients value. ⋯ The findings of this DCE will assist clinicians in choosing an assessment tool for CIPN that is satisfactory to both clinician and patient.
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Support Care Cancer · Oct 2021
Multicenter Study Observational StudyPatient-perceived symptomatic benefits of olanzapine treatment for nausea and vomiting in patients with advanced cancer who received palliative care through consultation teams: a multicenter prospective observational study.
To examine the safety, effectiveness, and patient-perceived benefit of treatment with olanzapine for nausea and vomiting (N/V) in patients with advanced cancer. ⋯ Short-term and relatively low-dose olanzapine treatment was effective for multifactorial N/V. Confirmatory studies with longer observation periods are needed to clarify the duration of the effect and adverse events.
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Support Care Cancer · Sep 2021
Observational StudyVisitation policies at NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Family/caregiver visitation provides critical support for patients confronting cancer and is associated with positive outcomes. However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought historic disruptions including widespread visitation restrictions. Here, we characterize in-depth the visitor policies of NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers (CCCs) and analyze geographic/temporal patterns across CCCs. ⋯ CCCs enacted strict but strikingly variable COVID-19 visitation restrictions, with important implications for patients/families seeking cancer care. A unified, evidence-based approach to visitation policies is needed to balance proven infection control measures with the needs of patients and families.
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Breast cancer patients receiving adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) benefit from local control. However, RT can give rise to increased fatigue, lowering quality of life. The aim of this study was to prospectively identify trends and risk factors in patient-reported fatigue associated with breast RT. ⋯ Fatigue associated with breast irradiation increased up to 6 weeks during RT and returned to near baseline scores at 1-3 months post treatment. Given that fatigue was significant in mastectomy patients, further research is needed to reduce fatigue among this cohort, especially those who have received previous chemotherapy and younger patients who are receiving breast RT.