Health-related quality of life during the last three months of life in patients with advanced cancer

Abstract

The findings have implications for the planning of care and indicate that further research is required to improve assessment, treatment and follow-up procedures. Adequate pain treatment seems still to be a challenge. Anorexia, fatigue as well as dyspnoea are all symptoms that need further focus.

The prognostic factors and trajectory of HRQOL in patients with pancreatic cancer who received psychiatric intervention

“…The response rate for the questionnaire decreased with disease progression and exacerbation of physical condition, as in previous studies. 10,18 At 3 months prior to death, only half the questionnaires were completed. Missing data with disease progression is often seen in studies in a palliative setting, and it is a concern that these missing data may bias the results.…”

Prevalence of severe depressive symptoms increases as death approaches and is associated with disease burden, tangible social support, and high self-perceived burden to others

“…However, longitudinal changes in the prevalence of severe depressive symptoms for cancer patients at the end of life (EOL) are under-investigated and poorly understood [1][2][3]. Among the four longitudinal studies [9][10][11][12] of changes in the prevalence of severe depressive symptoms over the dying process, many were underpowered by small samples (N=45 10 and 58 11 ) or biased by high attrition [9][10][11] with a lengthy interval between the last interview and patient death (13±11 months) [12].…”

Cost-Effectiveness of Pazopanib in Advanced Soft-Tissue Sarcoma in Canada

“…Because the information from palette on utility values after progression was limited, data from the trial were combined with data from a vignettes study to estimate utility values for the pps state. Although utility values based on vignettes studies have been used in earlier cost-effectiveness analyses of oncology therapies [25][26][27][28] , the validity of this approach has not been formally assessed 29 .…”

“…The mean time from progression to post-progression utility assessment in palette was limited to approximately 1 week in both groups. For that reason, the mean differences in utility for post-compared with pre-progression in palette reflect only declines in utility values immediately after progression; they do not reflect the declines in utility that would be expected over the entire post-progression period [25][26][27][28] . As a consequence, post-progression utility values for pazopanib and placebo were calculated by combining treatment group-specific estimates of the mean decrement in utility post-progression in palette (reflecting the period immediately after progression) with an estimate of utility in the terminal phase of the disease.…”