Annals of palliative medicine
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The aim of the present study was to conduct a cross-cultural adaptation (with translation into Brazilian Portuguese) and validation of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Quality of Life Questionnaire-Bone Metastases-22 (EORTC QLQ-BM22). ⋯ The EORTC QLQ-BM22 was translated into Brazilian Portuguese, was culturally adapted and was proven to be reliable, with face, content and construct validity.
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Pain is one of the most common, distressing and feared symptom among cancer and other patients in need of palliative care. An estimated 25% of cancer patients and 25 million people die in pain each year. Effective pain and symptom management are the core elements of palliative care which aims at reducing suffering and improving quality of life (QOL) throughout the course of illness starting from diagnosis, in sync with curative treatments and at end of life. ⋯ The need of the hour is to train all healthcare physicians and nurses especially those working in the field of chronic pain in principles of effective pain and symptom palliation, to integrate cancer pain and symptom management into existing pain management fellowships and to introduce a holistic pain and palliative care model at all levels of healthcare system. Simultaneously, of equal importance is to conduct research, evidence building and formulate policies and guidelines for meticulous symptom management among the diverse category of patients and diseases so as to have a personalized and individualistic approach to patient management. In this comprehensive review, we have pondered upon the need, advantages, barriers and recommendations to achieve ideal 'Integrated pain and palliative medicine' services, their equitable implementation and delivery to 'whomsoever in need of them'.
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Review Case Reports
Extremely rare presentation of soft tissue metastasis from carcinoma breast as a massive swelling of upper extremity.
Soft tissue metastasis from any primary malignancy is considered very rare and a breast carcinoma metastasizing to soft tissue is still rarer. To the best of our knowledge, carcinoma breast with soft tissue metastasis to upper extremity is very uncommon with only six cases been reported in world literature till date and our case is the seventh such case in an 80-year-old female, previously treated for carcinoma right breast 15 years ago. The patient presented with progressive painful massive swelling of right upper arm measuring 21 cm × 17 cm, of 2 months duration. ⋯ Only few case series and isolated cases reports have been published regarding any primary malignancy or breast carcinoma metastasizing to soft tissues. A thorough review of literature also reveals that our case is the largest soft tissue metastatic swelling from breast carcinoma ever reported. We hereby present this case with review of literature to highlight its extreme rarity, unusual presentation, clinicopathological characteristics and its overall prognosis.
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Multiple studies have shown the significantly increased post-operative morbidity and mortality of patients undergoing palliative operations. It has been proposed by some authors that the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS-NSQIP) database can be used reliably to develop risk-calculators or as an aid for clinical decision-making in advanced cancer patients. ACS-NSQIP is a population-based database that by design only captures outcomes data for the first 30-day following an operation. We considered the suitability of these data as a tool for decision-making in the advanced cancer patient. ⋯ Calculations utilizing ACS-NSQIP data fail to demonstrate the increased mortality associated with palliative operations. Patients diagnosed with advanced cancer are not adequately represented within the database due to the limited number of cases collected. Also, more suitable outcomes measures for palliative operations such as pain relief, functional status, and quality of life, are not captured. Therefore, the sole use of thirty-day morbidity and mortality data contained in the ACS-NSQIP database is insufficient to make sound decisions for surgical palliation.
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Palliative medicine was recognized as a unique medical specialty in 2006. Since that time, the number of hospital-based palliative care services has increased dramatically. It is unclear how palliative care consultation services (PCCS) are utilized by surgical services. The purpose of this study was to examine utilization of PCCS by surgical services compared to medical services at the University of New Mexico. ⋯ Referrals for palliative care consultations are much less common from surgical than medical services. Characteristics of surgical patients suggest that palliative care consultations are reserved for older patients, critically ill patients, and those more likely to be at end-of-life. Our findings suggest the possible need for increased palliative care consultations among less critically ill patients and/or those with an improved prospect of recovery.