Effectiveness of a Self-Care Toolkit for Surgical Breast Cancer Patients in a Military Treatment Facility

Abstract

Objective: To assess whether a self-care toolkit (SCT) provided to breast cancer patients undergoing surgery could mitigate distress and lessen symptoms associated with surgery.Design: One hundred women with breast cancer, planning to undergo initial surgery, were randomly assigned to either one of two groups: treatment as usual (TAU; n = 49) or TAU with the addition of an SCT (n = 51). The SCT contained an MP3 player with audio-files of guided mind–body techniques (breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, guided imagery, and self-hypnosis) and acupressure antinausea wristbands. Anxiety, pain, nausea, sleep, fatigue, global health, and quality of life (QOL) were assessed using validated outcome measures. Two inflammatory blood markers (erythrocyte sedimentation rate [ESR] and C-reactive protein [CRP]) were measured serially. Data were collected at baseline (T1), immediately before surgery (T2), within 10 h postoperatively (T3), and ∼2 weeks postsurgery (T4).Settings: Numerous studies have shown that psychological distress associated with a cancer diagnosis can affect pain perception and QOL.Results: Between T1 and T4, there were significant between-group differences in Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS)-57 scores of Pain Interference, Fatigue, and Satisfaction with Social Roles, favoring the SCT group compared with TAU (p = 0.005, p = 0.023, and p = 0.021, respectively). There was a significant mean change in Defense and Veterans Pain Rating Scale (DVPRS) scores from T2 to T3, with the SCT group having significantly smaller increases in postoperative pain (p = 0.008) and in postoperative ESR (p = 0.0197) compared with the TAU group. Clinically significant reductions in anxiety occurred in the SCT group during the main intervention period.Conclusion: These results suggest that using the SCT in the perioperative period decreased pain perceptions, fatigue, and inflammatory cytokine secretion.

Effectiveness of Complementary Therapies in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review

“…We also found two studies of each of the following: electroacupuncture [32,37], phytotherapy [33,38] and hypnotherapy [34,42]. In addition, we found two studies addressing progressive muscle relaxation (PMR) and guided imagery [36,43], and one of them also covered hypnotherapy, acupressure and meditation [43].…”

“…Four of these were excluded after performing the methodological quality assessment using the Jadad Scale, as they obtained a score of less than 3. Fifteen studies were finally selected (Figure 1), of which two studies scored 5 points [29,30], seven scored 4 points [31][32][33][34][35][36][37], and six scored 3 points [38][39][40][41][42][43].…”

“…The study sample included 1845 patients (64.55% women), of whom 794 had breast cancer [31][32][33][34]36,39,40,43], 50 had head and neck cancer [35], 220 had pancreatic cancer [38], 104 had prostate cancer and 104 had breast cancer [36], 341 had lung cancer [41], 142 had liver cancer [37] and 194 had an unspecified type of cancer [29,30,42]. Supplementary Material Table S1 presents the objectives, study design/methodology and sample/data collection/country.…”

Percepções da Dor nas Pacientes com Câncer de Mama

“…A Interferência de dor e fadiga e a sensação da perda dos papéis sociais foi estatisticamente menor para o grupo que realizou as estratégias, se comparado ao grupo controle. Não só isso, mas também ocorreu a diminuição dos níveis de náusea e ansiedade no grupo que assumiu as medidas do autocuidado (Stoerkel, E. et al, 2018).…”

Effects and moderators of coping skills training on symptoms of depression and anxiety in patients with cancer: Aggregate data and individual patient data meta-analyses

“…The literature search identified 3452 references, of which 23 new RCTs (C. X. Aguado Loi et al, 2017; Claudia X. Aguado Loi et al, 2012;Badger, Segrin, Dorros, Meek, & Lopez, 2007;Butow et al, 2017;Desautels, Savard, Ivers, Savard, & Caplette-Gingras, 2018;Dirksen & Epstein, 2008;do Carmo, Paiva, de Oliveira, Nascimento, & Paiva, 2017;Downe-Wamboldt et al, 2007;Garssen et al, 2013;Gonzalez-Fernandez, Fernandez-Rodriguez, Paz-Caballero, & Perez-Alvarez, 2018;Greer et al, 2012;Kangas, Milross, Taylor, & Bryant, 2013;Kurtz, Kurtz, Given, & Given, 2005;Manne et al, 2017;Napoles et al, 2015; Ream, Gargaro, Barsevick, & Richardson, 2015;Ren et al, 2019;Steel et al, 2016;Stefanopoulou, Yousaf, Grunfeld, & Hunter, 2015;Stoerkel et al, 2018;Strong et al, 2008;van de Wal, Thewes, Gielissen, Speckens, & Prins, 2017;Van der Meulen et al, 2012;Wells-Di Gregorio et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2016) were added to the 15 RCTs available in the POLARIS database (Fig. 1).…”