Background. Oral antineoplastic therapies not only improve survival but also reduce the burden of care for patients. Yet patients and clinicians face new challenges in managing adherence to these oral therapies. We conducted a systematic literature review to assess rates and correlates of adherence to oral antineoplastic therapies and interventions aimed at improving adherence. Methods. Following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines, we conducted a comprehensive literature search of the Ovid MEDLINE database from January 1, 2003 to June 30, 2015, using relevant terminology for oral antineoplastic agents. We included observational, database, and intervention studies. At least two researchers evaluated each paper to ensure accuracy of results and determine risk of bias. Results. We identified 927 records from the search and screened 214 abstracts. After conducting a full-text review of 167

Background Patients with incurable cancer face many physical and emotional stressors, yet little is known about their coping strategies or the relationship between their coping strategies, quality of life (QOL) and mood. Methods As part of a randomized trial of palliative care, this study assessed baseline QOL (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General), mood (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), and coping (Brief COPE) in patients within 8 weeks of a diagnosis of incurable lung or gastrointestinal cancer and before randomization. To examine associations between coping strategies, QOL, and mood, we used linear regression, adjusting for patients’ age, sex, marital status, and cancer type. Results Participant Sample There were 350 participants (mean age, 64.9 years), and the majority were male (54.0%), were married (70.0%), and had lung cancer (54.6%). Most reported high utilization of emotional support coping (77.0%), whereas fewer reported high utilization of acceptance (44.8%), self-blame (37.9%), and denial (28.2%). Emotional support (QOL: β = 2.65, P < .01; depression: β = −0.56, P = .02) and acceptance (QOL: β = 1.55, P < .01; depression: β = −0.37, P = .01; anxiety: β = −0.34, P = .02) correlated with better QOL and mood. Denial (QOL: β = −1.97, P < .01; depression: β = 0.36, P = .01; anxiety: β = 0.61, P < .01) and self-blame (QOL: β = −2.31, P < .01; depression: β = 0.58, P < .01; anxiety: β = 0.66, P < .01) correlated with worse QOL and mood. Conclusion Patients with newly diagnosed, incurable cancer use a variety of coping strategies. The use of emotional support and acceptance coping strategies correlated with better QOL and mood, whereas the use of denial and self-blame negatively correlated with these outcomes. Interventions to improve patients’ QOL and mood should seek to cultivate the use of adaptive coping strategies.

Patients with incurable cancer and their FCs report high levels of depression and anxiety symptoms. We demonstrated that patients' coping strategies and prognostic understanding were associated with FC depression and anxiety symptoms, underscoring the importance of targeting these risk factors when seeking to address the psychological distress experienced by FCs.