Feasibility of a Cognitive-Behavioral and Environmental Intervention for Sleep-Wake Difficulties in Community-Dwelling Cancer Patients Receiving Palliative Care

Living well with advanced cancer: a scoping review of non-pharmacological supportive care interventions

PURPOSE

The increasing number of people living longer with advanced cancer presents unique physical, psychosocial, financial, legal, practical and complex care needs. Supportive care interventions aim to address these needs by improving symptom management, promoting wellbeing, enhancing quality of life and potentially improving prognosis. To integrate supportive care interventions into clinical practice, a comprehensive review of existing studies is needed. This scoping review maps the evidence on non-pharmacological supportive care interventions for people with advanced cancer and identifies gaps to inform future research.

METHODS

We systematically searched four electronic databases-CINAHL, Medline, Cochrane and PsycINFO-for peer-reviewed original research on non-pharmacological supportive care interventions for adults with advanced cancer, published from January 1, 2013, to July 1, 2024.

RESULTS

Out of 3716 studies, 84 publications met the inclusion criteria. These studies were categorised into key supportive care domains: physical activity, psychosocial support, patient care and autonomy, multimodal approaches and others. Most publications focused on interventions addressing physical and psychosocial needs, showing benefits such as reduced fatigue, pain and improved mood. However, significant gaps were found in research on interventions addressing practical needs essential to autonomy, including health system and information needs, patient care and support and financial needs.

CONCLUSION

Mapping the studies to the needs of the advanced cancer population showed that domains with greatest unmet needs have the fewest interventions available. Our scoping review suggests that non-pharmacological supportive care interventions can improve the wellbeing and quality of life of people living with advanced cancer. However, addressing methodological limitations requires further large-scale, multi-centre studies focusing on the identified gaps to inform the implementation of suitable supportive care programs.

IMPLICATIONS FOR CANCER SURVIVORS

Non-pharmacological interventions can boost wellbeing and quality of life for advanced cancer survivors, but addressing gaps in practical and systemic support is crucial.

Nurses' comfort care of transarterial chemoembolization patients based on their perceptions around postembolization syndrome and symptom interference

AIM

Post-embolization syndrome is a common adverse event following trans-arterial chemoembolization, which negatively impacts the daily life of the patients involved. This study examined whether perceptions around post-embolization syndrome and symptom interference among nurses affect their comfort care performance toward patients who have undergone this procedure.

DESIGN

A descriptive cross-sectional study.

METHODS

One hundred and fifty registered nurses were surveyed from September to November 2020. Perceived post-embolization syndrome, symptom interference, and comfort care (including physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental dimensions) were measured. Data were analyzed using t-tests, analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation, and a multivariate analysis of variance.

RESULTS

There were no individual effects found of perceived post-embolization syndrome or symptom interference on nurses' comfort care performance. However, statistically significant interaction effects were found in terms of their sociocultural and environmental care.

CONCLUSION

Nurses who recognized both high post-embolization syndrome and symptom interference among their patients were found to provide greater sociocultural and environmental care. As such, nurses should improve their early symptom and symptom interference detection protocols based on current care guidelines and provide physical, psychospiritual, sociocultural, and environmental comfort care.