Unmet care needs of patients with advanced cancer and their relatives: multicentre observational study

Abstract

ObjectivesThe care needs of patients with advanced cancer and their relatives change throughout the disease trajectory. This study focused on the care-related problems and needs of patients with advanced cancer and their relatives. This was done from the perspective of centres for information and support.MethodsThis cross-sectional study used data from the eQuiPe study: an observational cohort study in which 40 Dutch hospitals participated. All adult patients with a diagnosis of a metastasised tumour and their relatives were eligible. Measures included information on the patients’ and relatives’ care problems and needs, assessed by the short version of the Problems and Needs in Palliative Care questionnaire. Socioeconomic demographics were also collected.Results1103 patients with advanced cancer and 831 relatives were included. Both patients (M=60.3, SD=29.0) and relatives (M=59.2, SD=26.6) experienced most problems in the domain of ‘psychological issues’. Both patients (M=14.0, SD=24.2) and relatives (M=17.7, SD=25.7) most frequently reported unmet needs within this domain. The most often reported unmet need by patients was ‘worrying about the future of my loved ones’ (22.0%); for relatives this was ‘fear for physical suffering of the patient’ (32.8%). There was no clear relationship between socioeconomic demographics and the experienced unmet needs.ConclusionsThe most often mentioned unmet needs consisted of fears and worries, followed by a broad range of topics within multiple domains. Centres for information and support may play a role in reducing the unmet needs of (potential) visitors as these centres provide support on a broad range of topics.

Association between anxiety, depression, and symptom burden in patients with advanced colorectal cancer: A multicenter cross‐sectional study

“…It is consistent with the founding of Driessen et al that the domain of psychological issues is the most unmet care need in advanced cancer patients. 17 The low use of drug therapy for symptoms reveals the current clinical reality that patients with advanced cancer do not receive sufficient symptoms management, but also not get enough attention on their psychological symptoms and not obtain good mental health services. International data also demonstrate that only a small proportion of cancer patients with psychological symptoms receive appropriate treatment.…”

Cancer centre information and support services and patient needs: participatory action research study

“…[2][3][4][5][6] Another study focusing on the unmet care needs of 1103 Dutch patients with advanced cancer and their 831 relatives found that the unmet care needs of both patients and their relatives most often consisted of psychological issues, mainly fears and worries, followed by a range of issues within multiple domains of life, for example, informational needs, autonomy and spiritual issues. 7 Thus, the unmet needs are not restricted to items related to medical care. Centres for information and support can play a role in fulfilling these unmet needs, as they offer both informal and non-medical formal supportive care, complementary to the medical formal care provided by the hospital.…”

Validation of the Standardized Needs Evaluation Questionnaire in Polish Cancer Patients

“…After cancer diagnosis, people have to face numerous problems; these are not only medically related (with cancer itself, oncological therapy, and adverse side-effects) but are also organizational, social, psychological, and spiritual. Therefore, cancer patients express various supportive care needs [2,[4][5][6][7]. Non-medical needs include also communication with clinicians and the healthcare system [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”