The needs of cancer patients during the COVID-19 pandemic—psychosocial, ethical and spiritual aspects—systematic review

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in unprecedented changes in the functioning of the health care system, which were connected with the occurrence of new challenges for both the health care system’s employees and for the patients. The purpose of the present article is to analyze the needs of persons with oncological diseases. Taking into account the multiple aspects of the term health, psychological, social, and existential needs of the patients were analyzed. This article is directed mainly at persons who remain in a direct therapeutic relation with a patient. It is to facilitate recognizing the needs of ill people and to increase sensitivity to the issue of maintaining or improving the well-being of patients which requires paying special attention to their psychological, social, and existential needs during the period of hindered access to the health care system. This systematic review takes advantage of quantitative and qualitative methods of text analysis with phenomenological analysis factored in. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the appearance of new problems in the population of oncological patients or it made the existing problems more severe. As a consequence, it made it significantly more difficult to meet their needs on various levels and sometimes it even made it impossible. It seems necessary to determine and introduce strategies to ensure that patients with oncological diseases have access to psychological and spiritual support in the period of the pandemic.

An umbrella review of systematic reviews on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cancer prevention and management, and patient needs

“…Of the 51 included systematic reviews, 14 articles also included a quantitative analysis/meta-analysis with one being individual participant meta-analysis ( Dhada et al, 2021 ; Teglia et al, 2022a ; Teglia et al, 2022b ; Nikolopoulos et al, 2022 ; Zhang et al, 2022 ; Kirby et al, 2022 ; Donkor et al, 2021 ; Gascon et al, 2022 ; Hojaij et al, 2020 ; Legge et al, 2022 ; Murphy et al, 2022 ; Gadsden et al, 2022 ; Majeed et al, 2022 ; Adham et al, 2022 ; Alom et al, 2021 ; Ayubi et al, 2021 ; Garg et al, 2020 ; Jammu et al, 2021 ; Lu et al, 2021 ; Momenimovahed et al, 2021 ; Mostafaei et al, 2022 ; Moujaess et al, 2020 ; Muls et al, 2022 ; Pacheco et al, 2021 ; Rohilla et al, 2021 ; Salehi et al, 2022 ; Sun et al, 2021 ; Zapała et al, 2022 ; Alkatout et al, 2021 ; Di Cosimo et al, 2022 ; Fancellu et al, 2022 ; Ferrara et al, 2022 ; Hesary and Salehiniya, 2022 ; Lignou et al, 2022 ; Mayo et al, 2021 ; Mazidimoradi et al, 2021 ; Mazidimoradi et al, 2022 ; Ng and Hamilton, 2022 ; Pararas et al, 2022 ; Riera et al, 2021 ; Sarich et al, 2022 ; Sasidharanpillai and Ravishankar, 2022 ; Tang et al, 2022 ; Thomson et al, 2020 ; Vigliar et al, 2020 ; de Bock et al, 2022 ). Other key characteristics of the 51 systematic reviews are shown in Table 1 (more extensive details appear in Supplementary file 1a and Supplementary file 2 ).…”

“…Supplementary file 1d and Table 4 summarize the main findings from the 15 reviewes ( Dhada et al, 2021 ; Teglia et al, 2022b ; Nikolopoulos et al, 2022 ; Gadsden et al, 2022 ; Majeed et al, 2022 ; Jammu et al, 2021 ; Pacheco et al, 2021 ; Zapała et al, 2022 ; Di Cosimo et al, 2022 ; Ferrara et al, 2022 ; Lignou et al, 2022 ; Mazidimoradi et al, 2021 ; Riera et al, 2021 ; de Bock et al, 2022 ; Piras et al, 2022 ) that assessed and reported on treatment delays and cancellations of cancer treatment. Most reviews mentioned that cancellations of treatment were observed, although to what extend this happened was not consistently provided ( Jammu et al, 2021 ; Pacheco et al, 2021 ; Zapała et al, 2022 ; Di Cosimo et al, 2022 ; Ferrara et al, 2022 ; Mazidimoradi et al, 2021 ; Riera et al, 2021 ). However, reviews reported that these reductions were more pronounced during a lockdown.…”

“…Thirteen reviews covered topics related to psychological needs and distress that patients with cancer experienced during the pandemic ( Dhada et al, 2021 ; Nikolopoulos et al, 2022 ; Zhang et al, 2022 ; Kirby et al, 2022 ; Legge et al, 2022 ; Ayubi et al, 2021 ; Jammu et al, 2021 ; Momenimovahed et al, 2021 ; Muls et al, 2022 ; Rohilla et al, 2021 ; Zapała et al, 2022 ; Hesary and Salehiniya, 2022 ; Piras et al, 2022 ); the findings are summarized in Supplementary file 1f and Table 4 . Reviews reported that the pandemic negatively impacted the psychosocial and physical well-being of cancer survivors and patients with cancer experienced different levels of anxiety, depression, and insomnia.…”

“…Telehealth was investigated and reported in 12 of the included reviews ( Dhada et al, 2021 ; Hojaij et al, 2020 ; Murphy et al, 2022 ; Alom et al, 2021 ; Lu et al, 2021 ; Mostafaei et al, 2022 ; Salehi et al, 2022 ; Zapała et al, 2022 ; Di Cosimo et al, 2022 ; Lignou et al, 2022 ; Pascual et al, 2022 ; Bezerra et al, 2022 ); a summary of main findings is provided in Supplementary file 1h . Salehi et al, 2022 reported that telemedicine use in breast cancer patients was the most common investigated in studies exploring cancer-specific use of telemedicine.…”

The Effect of Vinyasa Yoga Practice on the Well-Being of Breast-Cancer Patients during COVID-19 Pandemic

“…The pandemic has significantly complicated and hindered the process of identifying and adequately responding to the needs of cancer patients. Consequently, it has exacerbated the suffering of patients and their relatives [ 54 ]. Therefore, the activities we conducted responded to the needs of patients and resulted in improved satisfaction with daily life activities and assessment of overall health ( Figure 4 ).…”