scholarly journals Application of Palliative Care in Improving the Quality of Life of Patients with Cancer Pain

2017 ◽  
Vol 07 (04) ◽  
pp. 473-480
Author(s):  
Zuyan Fan ◽  
Jinxiang Lin ◽  
Xiangwei Chen ◽  
Xiuyan Huang
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Cancer Pain ◽  
Patients With Cancer

scholarly journals Leveraging Smart Health Technology to Empower Patients and Family Caregivers in Managing Cancer Pain: Protocol for a Feasibility Study

10.2196/16178 ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (12) ◽  
pp. e16178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia LeBaron ◽  
James Hayes ◽  
Kate Gordon ◽  
Ridwan Alam ◽  
Nutta Homdee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Cancer Pain ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Smart Watch ◽  
Smart Health

Background An estimated 60%-90% of patients with cancer experience moderate to severe pain. Poorly managed cancer pain negatively affects the quality of life for both patients and their family caregivers and can be a particularly challenging symptom to manage at home. Mobile and wireless technology (“Smart Health”) has significant potential to support patients with cancer and their family caregivers and empower them to safely and effectively manage cancer pain. Objective This study will deploy a package of sensing technologies, known as Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C), and evaluate its feasibility and acceptability among patients with cancer-family caregiver dyads. Our primary aims are to explore the ability of BESI-C to reliably measure and describe variables relevant to cancer pain in the home setting and to better understand the dyadic effect of pain between patients and family caregivers. A secondary objective is to explore how to best share collected data among key stakeholders (patients, caregivers, and health care providers). Methods This descriptive two-year pilot study will include dyads of patients with advanced cancer and their primary family caregivers recruited from an academic medical center outpatient palliative care clinic. Physiological (eg, heart rate, activity) and room-level environmental variables (ambient temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, light, and noise) will be continuously monitored and collected. Behavioral and experiential variables will be actively collected when the caregiver or patient interacts with the custom BESI-C app on their respective smart watch to mark and describe pain events and answer brief, daily ecological momentary assessment surveys. Preliminary analysis will explore the ability of the sensing modalities to infer and detect pain events. Feasibility will be assessed by logistic barriers related to in-home deployment, technical failures related to data capture and fidelity, smart watch wearability issues, and patient recruitment and attrition rates. Acceptability will be measured by dyad perceptions and receptivity to BESI-C through a brief, structured interview and surveys conducted at deployment completion. We will also review summaries of dyad data with participants and health care providers to seek their input regarding data display and content. Results Recruitment began in July 2019 and is in progress. We anticipate the preliminary results to be available by summer 2021. Conclusions BESI-C has significant potential to monitor and predict pain while concurrently enhancing communication, self-efficacy, safety, and quality of life for patients and family caregivers coping with serious illness such as cancer. This exploratory research offers a novel approach to deliver personalized symptom management strategies, improve patient and caregiver outcomes, and reduce disparities in access to pain management and palliative care services. International Registered Report Identifier (IRRID) DERR1-10.2196/16178

scholarly journals Leveraging Smart Health Technology to Empower Patients and Family Caregivers in Managing Cancer Pain: Protocol for a Feasibility Study (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Virginia LeBaron ◽  
James Hayes ◽  
Kate Gordon ◽  
Ridwan Alam ◽  
Nutta Homdee ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Cancer Pain ◽  
Family Caregivers ◽  
Health Care Providers ◽  
Care Providers ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Smart Watch ◽  
Smart Health

BACKGROUND An estimated 60%-90% of patients with cancer experience moderate to severe pain. Poorly managed cancer pain negatively affects the quality of life for both patients and their family caregivers and can be a particularly challenging symptom to manage at home. Mobile and wireless technology (“Smart Health”) has significant potential to support patients with cancer and their family caregivers and empower them to safely and effectively manage cancer pain. OBJECTIVE This study will deploy a package of sensing technologies, known as Behavioral and Environmental Sensing and Intervention for Cancer (BESI-C), and evaluate its feasibility and acceptability among patients with cancer-family caregiver dyads. Our primary aims are to explore the ability of BESI-C to reliably measure and describe variables relevant to cancer pain in the home setting and to better understand the dyadic effect of pain between patients and family caregivers. A secondary objective is to explore how to best share collected data among key stakeholders (patients, caregivers, and health care providers). METHODS This descriptive two-year pilot study will include dyads of patients with advanced cancer and their primary family caregivers recruited from an academic medical center outpatient palliative care clinic. Physiological (eg, heart rate, activity) and room-level environmental variables (ambient temperature, humidity, barometric pressure, light, and noise) will be continuously monitored and collected. Behavioral and experiential variables will be actively collected when the caregiver or patient interacts with the custom BESI-C app on their respective smart watch to mark and describe pain events and answer brief, daily ecological momentary assessment surveys. Preliminary analysis will explore the ability of the sensing modalities to infer and detect pain events. Feasibility will be assessed by logistic barriers related to in-home deployment, technical failures related to data capture and fidelity, smart watch wearability issues, and patient recruitment and attrition rates. Acceptability will be measured by dyad perceptions and receptivity to BESI-C through a brief, structured interview and surveys conducted at deployment completion. We will also review summaries of dyad data with participants and health care providers to seek their input regarding data display and content. RESULTS Recruitment began in July 2019 and is in progress. We anticipate the preliminary results to be available by summer 2021. CONCLUSIONS BESI-C has significant potential to monitor and predict pain while concurrently enhancing communication, self-efficacy, safety, and quality of life for patients and family caregivers coping with serious illness such as cancer. This exploratory research offers a novel approach to deliver personalized symptom management strategies, improve patient and caregiver outcomes, and reduce disparities in access to pain management and palliative care services. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/16178

Pain management

2020 ◽  
pp. 629-633
Author(s):  
Marie Fallon
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Pain Management ◽  
Pain Relief ◽  
Adverse Effects ◽  
Cancer Pain ◽  
Daily Functioning ◽  
Opioid Analgesia ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Good Pain Relief

Pain occurs in more than 50% of patients with advanced disease, interferes with daily functioning and quality of life, and is very often undertreated. Patients can find it difficult to articulate the character of their pains, but it is important to determine whether it is somatic, neuropathic, or visceral since this has important implications for management. For most patients with cancer pain, a three-step approach combining simple or opioid analgesia (depending on severity) along with an adjuvant analgesic (depending on cause) will result in good pain relief, but the challenge is to achieve good pain relief without unacceptable adverse effects.

scholarly journals Application of quality control circle in the treatment of moderate cancer pain in inpatients

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (5) ◽  
pp. 581-585
Author(s):  
Yehuan Liu ◽  
Beibei Lin
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Quality Control ◽  
Cancer Pain ◽  
Pain Control ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
Control Group ◽  
Observation Group ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Significant Difference

Abstract Context Pain is one of the most common and intolerable symptoms in cancer patients. But cancer pain control is still negative in China. Objectives This paper explores the application of quality control circle in the treatment of cancer pain in inpatients to improve the quality of life of patients with cancer pain. Method Established a quality control circle group to analyze the current status of cancer pain control in inpatients with moderate cancer pain, set goals, formulate corresponding countermeasures and implement and review them in stages. The plan-do-check-act method was cyclically applied. The Brief Pain Inventory was used to evaluate the cancer pain status of patients with cancer pain hospitalized before (January to April 2016) and after (September to December 2016) the implementation of quality control circle activities. Results The pain control effect of the observation group was significantly better than that of the control group. The mean (standard deviation) of pain severity and pain interference in the observation group were significantly lower than those in the control group (6.21 [2.86] vs 4.31 [2.25], 10.54 [4.10] vs 7.25 [3.77]). There was significant difference after the implementation of quality control circle (P < 0.01). Conclusion Quality control circle activities are used to manage patients with cancer pain, to improve the situation of pain control and to improve the quality of life of patients. This management tool and method is worthy of clinical promotion and application.

Age, cancer site and gender associations with symptoms and problems in specialised palliative care: a large, nationwide, register-based study

2019 ◽  
pp. bmjspcare-2019-001880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maiken Bang Hansen ◽  
Lone Ross ◽  
Morten Aagaard Petersen ◽  
Mogens Groenvold
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Physical Function ◽  
Cancer Diagnosis ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Cancer Site ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
And Gender

BackgroundPatients referred to specialised palliative care are troubled by symptoms/problems, but more knowledge is needed on the level and frequency of symptoms/problems. It is also uncertain how gender, age and cancer diagnosis, respectively, are associated with symptoms/problems.AimsTo describe symptoms/problems in patients with cancer at the start of specialised palliative care, and to study how age, gender and cancer diagnosis were associated with symptoms/problems.DesignA register-based study including data from the Danish Palliative Care Database.Setting/ParticipantsPatients with cancer who reported their symptoms/problems using the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionaire-Core-15-Palliative Care (EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL) at the start of specialised palliative care were included. Ordinal logistic regression was performed to test if gender, age and cancer diagnosis were associated with each symptom/problem.Results31 771 patients with cancer were included in the study. The most prevalent and severe symptoms/problems were pain, appetite loss, fatigue, poor physical function and poor quality of life. Gender, age and cancer diagnosis were significantly associated with most symptoms/problems. The strongest associations between symptoms/problems and gender and age, respectively, were increased risk of nausea in women, as well as increased risk of poor physical function and reduced risk of sleeplessness and pain with increasing age. Patients with brain/central nervous system cancer had the lowest risk of symptoms but the highest risk of poor physical function.ConclusionAt the start of specialised palliative care, patients with cancer experience severe levels of symptoms, poor physical function and poor quality of life. Age, gender and diagnosis were significantly associated with most symptoms/problems, but the strength and direction of the associations differed across symptoms/problems.

Pulmonary lymphangitis and cancer: Prospective series of 37 patients in palliative care

2006 ◽  
Vol 24 (18_suppl) ◽  
pp. 18600-18600 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. Dettino ◽  
E. M. Negri ◽  
T. Pagano
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Palliative Care ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Primary Tumors ◽  
Patients With Cancer ◽  
The Moment ◽  
In The Beginning ◽  
Minor Criteria

18600 Background: Lymphangitis of the lungs is an uncommon type of metastasis, mainly in breast, lung and gastric cancers, and has major impact in quality of life and an unfavorable prognosis. Survival is very poor: 50% in 3 and 15% in 6 months. Our objective was to evaluate prospectively quality of life in cancer patients with pulmonary lymphangitis, under palliative care. Methods: Patients with pulmonary lymphangitis, diagnosed either by lung biopsy (major criteria) or 3 minor criteria (cyto or histotologically proven cancer, clinical picture and image exam) were followed in 3 tertiary services, in a cohort series study. Primary end point was quality of life (QoL), measured with questionnaires in the beginning of the study and monthly afterwards (Saint George Respiratory Questionnaire -SGRQ- and Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey -SF36). Clinical and complementary aspects were also followed, in addition to treatment and outcome. Results: Thirty-seven patients were included from Aug/2004 to Jan/2006 - 23 female and 14 male; age from 41 to 84 (mean: 62) years. Primary tumors were: lung (20), breast (11), esophagus (2), pancreas, rectum and bone. Of those patients, 33 were able to respond QoL questionnaires in the beginning of follow-up and monthly thereafter. Median follow-up was of one month (range: 0–13); at the moment, 9 patients are still alive. Median survival was 2.5 months (range: 0,1–33), with 38% with a survival of at least 6 months. In general, QoL was poor, but improved after palliative care. Notice that values get higher as QoL improves in SF-36; however, they get lower as QoL improves in SGRQ - values were 61.5, 50.5, 61.7, and 47.5% for SGRQ and 38.1, 32.1, 32.8, 61.6 for SF36 in 0, 1, 3 and 6 months, respectively. Palliative care included: corticosteroids (65%), oxygen (51%), opioids (51%), diuretics (47%), inhalations with beta2-agonists and/or ipatropium (57%), chemo and/or hormonotherapy (51%), physical therapy (43%), antidepressants and benzodiazepines (37% each), thoracocentesis (35%), and blood transfusions. Conclusions: Even though QoL is poor and survival is short for patients with cancer lymphangitis in lungs, some improvement is possible with active palliative care. No significant financial relationships to disclose.

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