Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
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Support Care Cancer · Dec 2012
ReviewRandomised controlled trials of yoga interventions for women with breast cancer: a systematic literature review.
Yoga is increasingly used as a complementary therapy to manage disease and treatment-related side effects in patients with cancer and has resulted in an increase in the number of studies exploring the effectiveness of yoga interventions. This systematic review examines whether yoga interventions provide any measurable benefit, both physically and psychologically, for women with breast cancer. The results will inform future research in this field and advance the development of yoga programmes. ⋯ Results from the few RCTs suggest there is moderate to good evidence that yoga may be a useful practice for women recovering from breast cancer treatments. Large-scale RCTs using objective measures and patient-reported outcomes with long-term follow-up are needed to substantiate whether the benefits are true and sustainable.
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Previous cancer research does not adequately inform us about the experiences of managing a more serious, life-threatening cancer condition, especially for underserved Latinas. This study was designed to explore the ways in which Latinas navigate through and deal with advanced cancers. ⋯ This study indicates that underserved Latinas face complex circumstances that interfere with the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. However, women expressed positive attitudes and held beliefs about survival which helped them through their experience with cancer. The implication of these findings is that Latinas have protective attitudes and beliefs that help them to overcome "tragic" circumstances. Providers need to become aware of the complexity of these issues in order to achieve competent, effective, and efficient practice in medical settings with Latinas.
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Support Care Cancer · Dec 2012
The relatives' perspective on advanced cancer care in Denmark. A cross-sectional survey.
In order to improve advanced cancer care, evaluations are necessary. An important element of such evaluations is the perspective of the patient's relatives who have the role of being caregivers as well as co-users of the health care system. The aims were to investigate the scale structure of the FAMCARE scale, to investigate satisfaction with advanced cancer care from the perspective of the relatives of a representative sample of advanced cancer patients, and to investigate whether some sub-groups of relatives were more dissatisfied than others. ⋯ The relatives' level of dissatisfaction with some of the areas included in this survey needs to be taken seriously. Younger relatives were most dissatisfied.
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Support Care Cancer · Dec 2012
French version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Function (FACT-Cog) version 3.
Impairment of cognitive function, a common complaint in patients receiving chemotherapy, is usually measured through neuropsychological tests. Patient self-evaluation of cognitive difficulties is an important complement to those tests. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Cognitive Function (FACT-Cog) is a self-report questionnaire with potential to be used in standard clinical practice as a tool for evaluating patient's cognitive function before, during, and after chemotherapy. The purpose of our study was to conduct linguistic validation of the French version of the FACT-Cog. ⋯ Results from this study effectively demonstrate that the French FACT-Cog is a reliable instrument for the self-reporting of cognitive abilities in patients undergoing chemotherapy.
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Support Care Cancer · Dec 2012
Prevalence and severity of suffering among patients with advanced cancer.
Suffering is an expression commonly used to describe distressing experience of cancer patients. Suffering experience among patients with advanced cancer has not been studied before in Saudi Arabia. ⋯ Patients with advanced cancer were able to easily rate their suffering on a numerical scale. Pain, tiredness, and depression were associated with the suffering scores. Suffering scores might help in tracing the trend of suffering in the individual patient over time.