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Supportive Care Needs and Quality of Life in Cancer Patients and Their Caregivers

Special Issue Editor


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Guest Editor
“Rita Levi Montalcini” Department of Neuroscience, University of Turin, 10126 Turin, Italy
Interests: medical education; psychological assessment; medical psychology; psycho-oncology; clinical psychotherapy; clinical psychology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Cancer causes physical suffering due to symptoms and treatment, psychological distress due to death anxiety, fear of recurrence or a general uncertainty for the future, loss of social roles, increasing dependency in multiple aspects of daily life, and a spiritual void due to the perceived loss of meaning and purpose in life. In addition, the complexity of the current cancer care in which patients are inserted often causes them bewilderment and confusion, that increases frustration and dejection.

The need for help experienced by cancer patients is commonly defined and classified through the ‘supportive care needs’, which range from physical, informational, emotional, social and spiritual needs and vary according to demographics, cancer stage/ phase/ site/ treatment and other individual factors. The provision by healthcare professionals of the services to meet these needs is defined ‘supportive care’ and is aimed to preserve and improve the quality of life and reduce symptom burden and psychological suffering.

For this Special Issue we invite researchers worldwide working in the field of supportive care in oncology to submit papers about supportive care needs and quality of life of different cancer populations (any cancer stage/ phase/ site/ treatment). Contributions investigating lacks in supportive care (i.e., unmet needs), exploring the relationships between supportive care needs, quality of life and psychological outcomes, addressing assessment-related topics or focusing healthcare providers’/ family caregivers’ point of view about patients’ needs are warmly welcome. Empirical papers (observational/ experimental quantitative/ qualitative/ mixed methods), including systematic reviews and meta-analyses, are all invited and the perspectives of public health, oncology, psychiatry and psychology will be all considered in this Issue.

Prof. Dr. Paolo Leombruni
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • Supportive care needs
  • Quality of life
  • Cancer
  • Caregivers
  • Psychological comorbidity
  • Psychosocial care
  • Assessment

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

10 pages, 724 KiB  
Article
Quality of Life in the First Year of Cancer Diagnosis among Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal People Living in Regional and Remote Areas of Australia
by Elaina Elder-Robinson, Abbey Diaz, Kirsten Howard, Darshit Rajeshkumar Parikh, Giam Kar and Gail Garvey
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(1), 330; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19010330 - 29 Dec 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2396
Abstract
Little is known of the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, where healthcare delivery is geographically challenged. This exploratory study describes QoL among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cancer patients in the NT, in the first year [...] Read more.
Little is known of the quality of life (QoL) of cancer patients in the Northern Territory (NT) of Australia, where healthcare delivery is geographically challenged. This exploratory study describes QoL among Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal cancer patients in the NT, in the first year of diagnosis. Participants were recruited from the only cancer care centre in the NT and completed the Assessment of Quality-of-Life questionnaire (AQoL-4D). The results were descriptively analysed. The participants’ (n = 63; mean age 58.8 years) mean AQoL utility score was 0.72 (SD 0.26); patients scored lowest in the relationships and mental health dimensions of the questionnaire (mean 0.89, SD 0.19, and 0.89, SD 0.17, respectively). Participants living in remote and very remote areas (46%) reported higher QoL scores, compared with participants in the outer regional capital city of the NT in the overall (mean 0.76, SD 0.22 and 0.78, SD 0.20 vs. 0.67, SD 0.29, respectively), and mental health dimensions (mean 0.92, SD 0.09 and mean 0.94, SD 0.06 vs. 0.85, SD 0.22, respectively). The findings were suggestive of clinically meaningful differences across socioeconomic groups, cancer and treatment types, and comorbidity status. Mean QoL scores were consistent with previous reports in other Australian cancer cohorts. The findings suggest a need to support cancer patients’ mental health and relationships during the diagnosis and treatment phase of their cancer journey. Full article
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