Quantity, Design, and Scope of the Palliative Oncology Literature

Abstract

The current state of the palliative oncology literature is unclear. We examined and compared the quantity, research design, and research topics of palliative oncology publications in the first 6 months of 2004 with the first 6 months of 2009. We systematically searched MEDLINE, PsychInfo, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, and CINAHL for original studies, review articles, and systematic reviews related to "palliative care" and "cancer" during the

Quality of the supportive and palliative oncology literature: a focused analysis on randomized controlled trials

“…We recently reported on the quantity and scope of supportive and palliative oncology literature [14]. Despite an absolute increase in the number of supportive and palliative oncology studies, we identified a significant decrease in the proportion of oncology studies related to palliative care.…”

“…Anderson Cancer Center provided approval to proceed without the need for full committee review. The detailed methodology on how we identified the supportive/palliative oncology literature has been reported previously [14]. Briefly, we included all original studies related to both palliative care (palliative$ or hospice$ or "terminal care") [34,36] and oncology and published in the first 6 months of 2004 or 2009 in MEDLINE PubMed, PsychInfo, the Cochrane Library, EMBASE, ISI Web of Science, and CINAHL.…”

Palliative Oncologists: Specialists in the Science and Art of Patient Care

“…There are numerous opportunities on many under-researched topics, such as symptom management, psychosocial and spiritual care, treatment toxicities, communication, decision making, and health services research for patients throughout the continuum of care. 15 Having a strong knowledge base in both specialties, palliative oncologists are uniquely positioned to conduct pioneering research at the palliative care-oncology interface (Fig 2). For instance, a recent systematic review on integration of oncology and palliative care revealed that palliative oncologists authored a majority of the articles.…”

Dyspnea in Hospitalized Advanced Cancer Patients: Subjective and Physiologic Correlates

“…6 Dyspnea is one of the most under-researched symptoms. 7,8 Few studies have examined whether pathophysiologic factors and physical signs can reliably assess dyspnea in cancer patients, and even fewer have examined whether caregivers' and nurses' impressions accurately reflect cancer patients' perception of dyspnea. 2,9,10 A better understanding of the correlates of dyspnea would provide insights into the pathophysiology of this distressing symptom and allow us to better assess it.…”