A home-based walking exercise program is a potentially effective, low-cost, and safe intervention to manage fatigue and to improve QOL during adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation therapy for breast cancer. This health-promoting self-care activity needs further testing in large randomized clinical trials.

These findings support the IPOP model of care as being less emotionally distressing for and better meeting the needs of family caregivers. Specific implications for practice include the importance of caregiver education in the area of patient-care information and of assessment and intervention to meet caregiver psychological needs. Continued evaluation of the impact of changes in care delivery on family caregivers is essential for the provision of comprehensive cancer care.

Hope is essential to physical and psychosocial well-being and plays a central role in one's ability to deal with illness and suffering. It's relationship to spiritual well-being, however, has not been explored empirically. This article addresses the conceptual similarities of hope and spiritual well-being and reports the results of a correlational study examining the relationship in a sample of healthy individuals. While hope was found to be related to both the religious and existential dimensions of spiritual well-being, the relationship with existential well-being was significantly stronger. Questions are raised concerning the developmental relationship of hope and spiritual well-being, and the importance of spiritual well-being in facilitating hope in others is addressed.

The purpose of this cross-sectional, correlational study was to describe stomatitis-related pain in women with breast cancer undergoing autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplant. Hypotheses tested were that significant, positive relationships would exist between oral pain and stomatitis, state anxiety, depression, and alteration in swallowing. Stomatitis, sensory dimension of oral pain, and state anxiety were hypothesized to most accurately predict oral pain overall intensity. Thirty-two women were recruited at two East coast comprehensive cancer centers. Data were collected on BMT day +7 ± 24 hours using Painometer®, Oral Mucositis Index-20, Oral Assessment Guide, State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Beck Depression Inventory. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlations, and stepwise multiple regression. All participants had stomatitis; 47% had oral pain with a subset reporting continuous moderate to severe oral pain despite pain management algorithms. Significant, positive associations were seen between oral pain, stomatitis, and alteration in swallowing, and between oral pain with swallowing and alteration in swallowing. Oral pain was not significantly correlated with state anxiety and depression. Oral sensory and affective pain intensity most accurately predicted oral pain overall intensity. Future research needs to explore factors that affect perception and response to stomatitis-related oropharyngeal pain, and individual patient response to opioid treatment.