Identifying supportive care needs of women with ovarian cancer

Abstract

Women diagnosed with ovarian cancer may experience many shortterm and long-term effects from cancer and its treatment. Cancer has more than a physical impact, yet there is a lack of information about the types of needs these women have and whether they want help in meeting their needs.The main purpose of this cross-sectional, descriptive study was to identify the supportive care needs (physical, emotional, social, informational, spiritual, psychological and practical) Ovarian cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death for women in Canada. An estimated 2,500 new cases of ovarian cancer and 1,700 deaths from the disease were expected in 2008 (National Cancer Institute of Canada, 2008). Women with ovarian cancer may face particularly difficult situations involving distress because of the aggressive surgical procedures used in treatment together with the toxic chemotherapy regimens (Armstrong, 2002;Pignata, Ballatori, Favalli, & Scambia, 2001). At present, there is a lack of knowledge about the supportive care needs of these women.Nursing staff in the gynecological clinic of a comprehensive, ambulatory cancer care centre in Ontario, Canada, were interested in understanding the supportive care needs of women with ovarian cancer attending the clinic. The staff wanted to provide optimal care to these women and were eager to further their knowledge about women's unmet needs. Although the nurses had a sense of what women needed, there was very little empirical research to support their beliefs. This study was developed to address this gap in evidence. Literature reviewOvarian cancer has a profound and variable course characterized by an initial response to antineoplastic therapies, followed by relapse and progression of disease. As a result, the disease has a significant physical and emotional impact on women and their families (Fitch, Deane, & Howell, 2003;Fitch, Gray, & Franssen, 2001;Howell, Fitch, & Deane, 2003a, 2003b). Some researchers have described this impact on quality of life (Bezjak et al., 2004;Ersek, Ferrel, Dow, & Melancon, 1997;Ferrell et al., 2005;Fish & Lewis, 1999; LockwoodRayermann, 2006;Schulman-Green, Ercolano, Dowd, Schwartz, & McCorkle, 2008;Wenzel et al., 2002), while others have reported the symptom burden (Montazeri, McEwen, & Gillis, 1996;Portenoy et al., 1994) and psychosocial distress experienced by this group of patients (Greimel & Friedl, 2000;Hamilton, 1999;Wenzel et al., 2002). Relatively consistent findings have been reported: marked anxiety and depression have been observed in many women; sexuality was often negatively influenced; social functioning was impaired, especially as it related to the ability to go to work; and physical functioning and disease progression were often predictive of changes in quality of life. Women reporting the lowest quality of life were more likely to be younger, more educated, un-partnered, or living with advanced disease (Schulman-Green et al.). Frequently, data regarding ovarian cancer patients are subsumed within general gynecol...

A systematic review of unmet needs of newly diagnosed older cancer patients undergoing active cancer treatment

“…Of the 30 included studies, nine were conducted in Australia [16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24], five in the USA [11,[25][26][27][28], four in Taiwan [29][30][31][32], three in the UK [33][34][35], three in Canada [36][37][38], two in the Netherlands [39,40], and one each in Sweden [41], Germany [42], Finland [43], and Singapore [44]. Table 1 shows the characteristics of the included studies.…”

“…Two studies showed that despite reporting a need, not all patients wanted help with that need from a healthcare professional [25,37]. It was suggested that this might be due to unfamiliarity with available treatment options.…”

Changes in supportive care needs after first‐line treatment for ovarian cancer: identifying care priorities and risk factors for future unmet needs

“…Little information is available about the specific needs of women with ovarian cancer. The only published study to date, a cross-sectional single clinic sample of 50 women, reported that the most frequently reported needs were psychosocial, such as fear about the cancer returning or spreading [6]. While other studies include women with ovarian cancer among heterogeneous gynecological samples, these have been cross-sectional, mainly longer-term survivors [7][8][9] and/or convenience samples [9,10] and do not separately report on women with ovarian cancer.…”

Palliative Care as the Driving Force for Providing Psychological Comfort to Patients with Cancer: A Hermeneutic Study

“…Our participants noted that nurses need to assess and know about different aspects of patients' health and lives. The results of a study in Canada also showed that cancer has different short-and long-term effects on physical, social, and psychological aspects of patients' lives (31). Accordingly, paying attention to different aspects of their lives would minimize the negative effects of cancer on patients' lives and improve their quality of life (32).…”