Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
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Support Care Cancer · Jun 2010
Impact of caregivers' unmet needs for supportive care on quality of terminal cancer care delivered and caregiver's workforce performance.
Family caregivers play an important role in caring for cancer patients, but the impact of caregivers' unmet needs on the quality of end-of-life (EOL) care they deliver and on their workplace performance are less understood. ⋯ Caregivers' unmet needs negatively affected both the quality of EOL care they delivered and their workplace performance. More investment in caregiver support and public policies that meet caregiver needs are needed, and hospice use should be encouraged.
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Support Care Cancer · Jun 2010
Patients' experience of oxygen therapy and dyspnea: a qualitative study in home palliative care.
Dyspnea is a common and distressing symptom in advanced cancer patients. Our preliminary work shows that in the home palliative care population sampled for this study, the prevalence of dyspnea is 29.5% and of those, 26.2% used oxygen therapy. Previous studies suggested that oxygen therapy can be a burden to patients. ⋯ The advantages of oxygen usage outweighed the disadvantages for this sample of patients in the home palliative setting.
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Support Care Cancer · Jun 2010
Evaluation of analgesic effect and safety of fentanyl transdermal patch for cancer pain as the first line.
Initial treatment with morphine followed by fentanyl transdermal patch is the standard in Japan, since even the smallest patch (2.5 mg) could deliver too high an initial dose for Japanese patients. We evaluated the analgesic effect and safety of using the fentanyl transdermal patch as a first-line strong opioid for cancer pain that is resistant to nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). ⋯ The use of 1.25-mg fentanyl transdermal patch (50% of a 2.5-mg patch) seems to be safe and efficient as a first-line strong opioid. The use of 3.75-mg fentanyl transdermal patch may be necessary since adverse events including nausea and sleepiness are likely to occur by increasing from 2.5 to 5 mg.