Lung cancer: Challenges and solutions for supportive care intervention research

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. It is associated with a high level of morbidity, particularly fatigue, pain, breathlessness, and coughing. These symptoms can have a substantial impact on psychosocial functioning. It is critical to have effective interventions demonstrated to improv...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Palliative & supportive care 2008-09, Vol.6 (3), p.281-287
Main Authors: Schofield, Penelope, Ugalde, Anna, Carey, Mariko, Mileshkin, Linda, Duffy, Mary, Ball, David, Aranda, Sanchia
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Chemotherapy
Clinical trials
Colorectal cancer
Data collection
Humans
Industrialized nations
Intervention
Lung cancer
Lung Neoplasms - psychology
Lung Neoplasms - therapy
Palliative Care - methods
Panic attacks
Patients
Psychology
Quality of life
Radiation therapy
Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic
Recruitment
Smoking
Studies
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer death. It is associated with a high level of morbidity, particularly fatigue, pain, breathlessness, and coughing. These symptoms can have a substantial impact on psychosocial functioning. It is critical to have effective interventions demonstrated to improve quality of life particularly for those with advanced disease. However there is a paucity of high quality intervention research to guide practice in this area. This article discusses the challenges in conducting supportive care research in this group, including the patient's level of literacy in English, poor performance status, rapidly fluctuating health status, and familial or professional “gate-keeping.” Many of these challenges can be overcome by broadening eligibility criteria, permitting some flexibility in relation to recruitment and data collection procedures, working closely with the treatment team, involving the patient's family, minimizing practical difficulties associated with intervention delivery, and reducing study burden in other ways, such as limiting the amount of data collected from the patient and shortening follow-up time intervals. We explore these potential solutions drawing on the experience of conducting a randomized controlled trial of a support intervention for people with lung cancer and their family.
ISSN:1478-9515
1478-9523
DOI:10.1017/S1478951508000424