The evolution of supportive care needs trajectories in women with advanced breast cancer during the 12 months following diagnosis

Abstract

Most Chinese women with advanced breast cancer showed low stable supportive care needs. Physical symptom distress predicted high supportive care needs. Interventions should focus on optimizing symptom assessment and management.

A longitudinal study of supportive care needs among Chinese patients awaiting colorectal cancer surgery

“…The HSI domain needs predominated, with lack of continuity care and inadequate disease and treatment information being most prevalent. This concurred with previous studies that Hong Kong Chinese and Taiwanese Chinese cancer patients prioritized HSI needs. Elsewhere, Japanese , Australian , German , and French samples emphasized unmet PSY and HSI needs.…”

Course and predictors of supportive care needs among Mexican breast cancer patients: A longitudinal study

“…However, there are no previous longitudinal studies addressing supportive care needs of cancer patients in Latin America. Longitudinal research among Asian and European breast cancer patients showed that supportive care needs may change during active treatment, and in the survivorship phase . Besides, cross‐sectional research showed differences in unmet care needs between Asian and European breast cancer patients …”

“…A longitudinal study among Taiwanese breast cancer patients in early stages of the disease and undergoing active treatment showed that supportive care needs decreased from diagnosis up to 3‐month follow‐up post‐diagnosis . By contrast, another study with Chinese breast cancer patients in more advanced stages of the disease receiving chemotherapy (baseline) and who were followed up to 12‐months post‐baseline showed that most patients reported stable low needs in all the supportive care needs domains, with only a few patients showing an increase in care needs for the Psychological and Physical and Daily Living domains . Supportive care needs among French breast cancer survivors evaluated in the last week of primary treatment and 4 and 8 months later showed low decreasing Health System and Information care needs, medium stable Psychological or Physical and Daily Living care needs, low stable Patient Care and Support needs, and no need stable Sexual care needs .…”

“…However, interpretation of their relevance for clinical practice is complicated because measurements were scheduled on a time‐basis from diagnosis or baseline measure, without considering that key meaningful events (eg, neoadjuvant treatment, surgery, adjuvant treatment) occur in different moments for each patient during active treatment and may elicit care needs. Additionally, these studies did not distinguish between the different treatment trajectories, included only patients in an advanced stage of the disease or in the survivorship phase, which prevents us from getting a complete picture of the supportive care needs throughout different disease trajectories.…”

“…More precisely, we wanted to investigate whether the course of supportive care needs was different for patients depending on the treatment trajectory they followed (ie, group A: only surgery, group B: surgery plus adjuvant treatment, or group C: neoadjuvant treatment, surgery, and adjuvant treatment). Additionally, we explored potential predictors of changes in the supportive care needs of Mexican breast cancer patients, as earlier cross‐sectional and longitudinal research among cancer patients showed that sociodemographic, psychological, and medical characteristics were related to care needs …”