Articles: palliative-care.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Sep 2012
Review Meta AnalysisThe experiences of relatives with the practice of palliative sedation: a systematic review.
Guidelines about palliative sedation typically include recommendations to protect the well-being of relatives. ⋯ Relatives' experiences with palliative sedation are mainly studied from the perspective of proxies, mostly professional caregivers. The majority of relatives seems to be comfortable with the use of palliative sedation; however, they may experience substantial distress by the use of sedation.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Aug 2012
Review Meta AnalysisA systematic evaluation of content, structure, and efficacy of interventions to improve patients' self-management of cancer pain.
Cancer pain continues to be extensively undertreated, despite established guidelines. Although the efficacy of interventions that support patients' self-management of cancer pain has been demonstrated in several studies, the most effective components of these interventions remain unknown. ⋯ This analysis provides researchers and clinicians with a detailed overview of the various structural and content components, as well as various combinations that were tested in intervention studies to improve cancer pain management. However, because of a variety of limitations, the most efficacious intervention components or combination of components remain to be determined in future studies.
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J Pain Symptom Manage · Jun 2012
Meta AnalysisKey characteristics of palliative care studies reported in the specialized literature.
Although research activity in palliative care is rapidly increasing, the composition of published studies--in terms of significant research characteristics--has not yet been well described. ⋯ Although there is a broad range of research undertaken in palliative care, few studies generate high-level evidence, with data showing a relative lack of funding for hospice and palliative care studies.
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Clin Oncol (R Coll Radiol) · Mar 2012
Review Meta AnalysisUpdate on the systematic review of palliative radiotherapy trials for bone metastases.
To update previous meta-analyses of randomised palliative radiotherapy trials comparing single fractions versus multiple fractions. ⋯ Overall and complete response rates were similar in both intention-to-treat and assessable patients. Single and multiple fraction regimens provided equal pain relief; however, significantly higher retreatment rates occurred in those receiving single fractions.
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Cochrane Db Syst Rev · Jan 2012
Review Meta AnalysisPalliative endobronchial brachytherapy for non-small cell lung cancer.
This is an updated version of the original review published in Issue 2, 2008 of The Cochrane Library. Non-small cell lung cancers (NSCLC) constitute about 80% of all lung cancer cases. Although surgery is the only curative treatment of NSCLC, fewer than 20% of tumors can be radically resected. Radiotherapy is one of the main treatment modalities in lung cancer, contributing to both its cure and palliation. Endobronchial brachytherapy (EBB) has been used as one approach to improve local control either alone or in combination with other treatments. ⋯ The evidence did not provide conclusive results that EBB plus EBRT improved symptom relief over EBRT alone. We were not able to provide conclusive evidence to recommend EBB with EBRT, EBB in preference to EBRT, chemotherapy or Nd-YAG laser. From heterogeneous information obtained from several small RCTs, we conclude that EBRT alone is more effective for palliation than EBB alone. For patients previously treated by EBRT who are symptomatic from recurrent endobronchial central obstruction, EBB may be considered in selected cases.