Journal of pain and symptom management
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2014
Review Meta AnalysisPrevalence of symptoms in older cancer patients receiving palliative care: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Symptom control is an essential part of palliative care and important to achieve optimal quality of life. Studies showed that patients with all types of advanced cancer suffer from diverse and often severe symptoms. Research focusing on older persons is scarce because this group is often excluded from studies. Consequently, it is unclear which symptoms older palliative care patients with cancer experience and what is the prevalence of these symptoms. To date, no systematic review has been performed on the prevalence of symptoms in older cancer patients receiving palliative care. ⋯ There is a high degree of uncertainty about the reported symptom prevalence because of small sample sizes, high heterogeneity among studies, and the extent of instrument validation. Research based on rigorous methods is needed to allow more conclusive results.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jan 2014
Review Meta AnalysisPrevalence of breakthrough cancer pain: a systematic review and a pooled analysis of published literature.
Despite the large body of literature on breakthrough cancer pain (BTcP), an accurate estimate of BTcP prevalence is still not available. ⋯ In the context of a large between-studies heterogeneity, more than one in two patients with cancer pain also experiences BTcP, with some variability according to clinical and organizational variables.