Development and Validation of the Korean Version of Hand-Foot Skin Reaction and Quality of Life Questionnaire (HF-QoL-K)

Global research trends on precision cancer medicine-related rashes (2008-2021): A bibliographic study

Background

Precision cancer medicine-related rashes are a kind of skin and mucous lesions caused by precision therapy. More and more evidences indicated that such events should not be ignored in the course of anti-tumor therapy. Since cancer treatment entered the “Precision Era”, there has been a rapid increase in this field. However, there was few bibliometric studies to provide an overall review of this field. This study aims to evaluate the literature output and trends in researches on precision cancer medicine-related rashes from a global perspective.

Methods

Collected publications on precision cancer medicine-related rashes from the Web of Science Core Collection database, which were limited to articles and reviews in English. Microsoft Excel, VOS viewer and CiteSpace V were used for quantitative and visual analysis.

Results

A total of 1,229 papers were identified. From 2008 to 2021, annual publications increased year by year. The United States published the most papers in this field (44.9%) and ranking first in citation frequency (19,854 times) and H-index (69). The University of Texas system ranks first with 98 papers published. Lacouture M.E and Robert C were the principal investigators. Cancers has the largest number of articles published, with 70 articles. In recent years, there have been research hotspots related to immunotherapy, including ipilimumab, immunotherapy, tumor microenvironment, association, checkpoint inhibitor, and cutaneous adverse event.

Conclusion

Precision cancer medicine-related rashes are a hot research topic in oncology. The number of relevant publications will increase dramatically. “Checkpoint inhibitors”, “skin adverse events”, “associations” and “tumor microenvironment” may become research hotspots in the future.

Development of a New Tool to Assess the Quality of Life of Patients with Hand-Foot Syndrome Receiving Capecitabine-Based Therapy: A Pilot Study

Background  Hand–foot syndrome (HFS) can result in significant deficits in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and can lead to poor compliance, dose reduction, or interruption. This study was performed to assess the HRQOL with HFS on physical, psychological, social, and sexual aspects of patients receiving capecitabine-based chemotherapy with gastrointestinal cancer along with validating and assessing the reliability score of the questionnaire.

Patients and Methods  HFS-related QOL (HF-QOL) questionnaire was developed and validated in a sample of 30 patients randomly selected for this pilot study. The internal consistency of the tool was tested by calculating the Cronbach's α coefficient, while content and construct validity were assessed by Pearson's correlation. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 25.0.

Results  Out of 30, 22 (73%) patients were males, mean age was 44 ± 13 years; 21 (70%) patients had grade 1 HFS, while 6 (20%) and 3 (10%) patients had grades 2 and 3 HFS, respectively. Cronbach's α coefficient was high for physical (0.79) and sexual scales (0.79), while it was moderately low for psychological (0.65) and social (0.53) domains. The average HF-QOL scores were 70.6 ± 13.2 in physical domain and 71.3 ± 23.7 in sexual domain indicating poor quality of life (QOL), while it was 50.9 ± 9.9 in social domain indicating moderately worse QOL. Grades 2 and 3 of HFS were found to have statistical significance on physical (0.0001), psychological (0.05), and social (0.02) domains, whereas sexual domain did not have any statistical significance (0.594).

Conclusion  This pilot study showed the feasibility of use and validity of a new patient-reported instrument, the HF-QOL, which measures the effect of HFS on daily activities (physical, psychological, social, and sexual domains) after capecitabine-based chemotherapy.

Hand-foot syndrome and its impact on daily activities in breast cancer patients receiving docetaxel-based chemotherapy

PURPOSE

Breast cancer patients who undergo docetaxel-based chemotherapy regimens can have hand-foot syndrome (HFS), which negatively impacts their ability to perform daily activities. The purpose of the study was to assess, in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy: the perceived levels of HFS-related symptoms of the feet, hands or fingers; and HFS-related restrictions in daily activities; as well as to identify factors associated with these symptoms and restrictions.

METHODS

This cross-sectional study examined breast cancer patients who received docetaxel-based chemotherapy from the general surgery outpatient department and oncology outpatient department of a medical center in northern Taiwan. A set of structured questionnaires were used to measure patients' HFS-related symptoms and HFS-related restrictions in daily activities.

RESULTS

Of the 85 breast cancer patients studied, 41.2% reported HFS. Patients had higher level of HFS-related foot symptoms than HFS-related hand or fingers symptoms. Greater restriction in HFS-related daily activities was associated with more HFS-related hand or fingers symptoms and more HFS-related foot symptoms; these factors explained 44.7% of the variance in restriction of activities.

CONCLUSION

Skin care and patient education should be provided to manage the HFS of breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy.

Clinical aspects of foot health and their influence on quality of life among breast cancer survivors: a case-control study

Purpose

The aim of this study was to analyze and compare foot health and general health in a sample of women divided into two groups: 1) those with breast cancer and undergoing chemotherapy treatment and 2) healthy women without breast cancer and with normalized reference values.

Methods

A case–control observational study was performed. Two-hundred women with a mean age of 51.00±8.75 years were recruited from podiatric medicine and surgery clinics from the University of Extremadura (Plasencia, Spain) and the Hospital Infanta Cristina (Badajoz, Spain). The women were divided into case and control groups (undergoing chemotherapy treatment and healthy women, respectively). The Foot Health Status Questionnaire was used to assess foot health domain scores.

Results

Significant differences between both groups were seen for foot pain (P=0.003), foot function (P<0.001), physical activity (P<0.001), social capacity (P<0.001), and vigor (P=0.001). The remaining domains (footwear, general health, and foot health) did not show significant differences between the two groups (P≥0.01).

Conclusion

Women with breast cancer presented a lower foot health-related quality of life. Clinical aspects with emphasis on foot pain and disability were increased. Furthermore, physical activity, social capacity, and vigor were affected. Therefore, general health care and foot problem prevention for breast cancer survivors should be given more consideration.