Understanding Nutritional Problems of Metastatic Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Background: Metastatic breast cancer patients are now living longer but cope with potential symptoms of metastatic disease and prolonged cancer treatment. Nutrition can play a vital role in managing these sequelae, and eHealth tools are emerging as promising delivery options for nutrition interventions. Objective: To qualitatively assess nutritional problems and concerns of women with metastatic breast cancer and to explore how to address these problems within an existing eHealth platform. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 21 women with metastatic breast cancer participating in an ongoing eHealth study. Interviews were audiotaped, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed using a team-based content analysis approach. Results: Most respondents reported currently or previously experiencing nutritional problems due to adverse effects of cancer treatment or the disease itself; these were rarely addressed during routine clinical care. Five major themes emerged: (1) knowledge about nutrition, (2) nutrition information-seeking, (3) social aspects of nutrition, (4) nutrition interest, and (5) how to address nutrition with an eHealth platform. The respondents reported diverse experiences and perspectives regarding nutrition and diet in the context of metastatic breast cancer within each theme. Conclusion: Findings indicate the importance of providing women with metastatic breast cancer with information about nutrition that is tailored to their specific disease, as these patients report both nutritional problems and uncertainty regarding nutritional strategies. Implications for Practice: These findings are a first step toward designing supportive care interventions that could fill the gap related to nutritional concerns not addressed during routine clinical care.

Addressing metastatic individuals everyday: Rationale and design of the nurse AMIE for Amazon Echo Show trial among metastatic breast cancer patients

“…Nutrition strategies included tips to deal with side effects of cancer and its treatment, tips regarding medications/cancer treatment and possible interactions with nutrition, and tips providing information on weight monitoring, appetite and weight loss. This nutrition content was developed based on the needs that MBC patients have reported previously [ 7 ].…”

“…Approaches are required to address symptom needs without additional appointments. Additionally, prior research indicated patients desired a nutrition component be added to Nurse AMIE [ 7 ]. Technology may be a useful tool to assess and address the needs of MBC patients, including options to enhance patient-provider communication, and provide guideline-concordant self-care interventions to reduce symptom burden [ 8 ].…”

Psychosocial experiences of breast cancer survivors: a meta-review

“…Seven papers focused on metastatic BC [39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. Five focused on African American survivors [46][47][48][49][50], eleven on 'younger' survivors (e.g.…”

“…under 50 years) [41,43,49,[51][52][53][54][55][56][57][58], nine on return to work [59][60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67], two on cognitive difficulties [68,69], four on lymphoedema [65,[70][71][72], four on cancer-related fatigue [73][74][75][76], five on sexual and/or reproductive health [51,58,[77][78][79], and four on healthy lifestyle factors (i.e. nutrition and exercise) [45,54,80,81]. Other populations/topics explored included low SES survivors [39,82], sexuality and gender diverse survivors [83], infant feeding [84], healthcare experience [85][86][87], economic burden [71], parenthood…”

A whole-food, plant-based randomized controlled trial in metastatic breast cancer: weight, cardiometabolic, and hormonal outcomes

“…Patients with breast cancer, frequently concerned about their weight, are highly interested in nutrition information [ 25 , 26 ]. Unfortunately, only limited research has investigated how dietary intervention affects BC-related outcomes [ 27 , 28 ].…”