Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
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Support Care Cancer · Sep 2007
Asking the right questions: investigating needs assessments and health-related quality-of-life questionnaires for use in oncology clinical practice.
Questionnaires used in oncology practice for individual patient management need to address issues patients find important and want help with and issues cancer center health professionals can address. We investigated the item content from two health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) questionnaires and two needs assessments for this purpose. ⋯ This preliminary study suggests that the issues patients most want help with may not be the issues that health professionals feel most able to address. If these findings are confirmed in more representative samples, interventions may be needed to assist health professionals in managing cancer patients' HRQOL issues and needs.
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The purpose of this study is to explore whether bone pain "clusters" with other symptoms in patients with bone metastases. ⋯ Radiotherapy influenced the structure of symptom clusters in both responders and nonresponders. There was evidence that pain clustered out in responders of radiation to pain. It was found that pain clustered with fatigue, drowsiness, and poor sense of well-being at baseline. However, these findings must be heeded with caution, as more work is needed to clearly define symptom clusters and to understand the effects of radiation in the symptom experience of patients with bone metastases.
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Support Care Cancer · Sep 2007
End-of-life care for nursing home residents dying from cancer in Nova Scotia, Canada, 2000-2003.
With our population aging, an increasing proportion of cancer deaths will occur in nursing homes, yet little is known about their end-of-life care. This paper identifies associations between residing in a nursing home and end-of-life palliative cancer care, controlling for demographic factors. ⋯ Demographic characteristics and end-of-life services differ between those residing and those not residing in nursing homes. These inequalities may or may not reflect inequities in access to quality end-of-life care.
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Support Care Cancer · Sep 2007
Perceived cancer-related financial difficulty: implications for patient satisfaction with quality of life in advanced cancer.
Cancer and its treatment often lead to financial difficulty in patients with advanced cancer. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationship between perceived cancer-related financial difficulty and patient satisfaction with quality of life (QoL) in advanced cancer. ⋯ We found that perceived financial difficulty is strongly correlated with patient satisfaction with QoL in advanced cancer. These findings indicate a need for the providers of cancer care to be aware that nonclinical factors such as perceived financial difficulty can have an important bearing on QoL of cancer patients.