Patients' Desire for Psychological Support When Receiving a Cancer Diagnostic.

BACKGROUND: Factors related to the desire of receiving psychological help in cancer patients are not well known. The aim of this study is to assess the prevalence of patients who would ask for psychological assistance in the first weeks following diagnosis, and to identify their psychosocial and disease-related profile. METHOD: This cross-sectional study assessed 229 consecutive cancer outpatients at a visit with their oncologist to be informed about the treatment they will receive. Disease-related and medical characteristics were assessed, and patients were asked about their mood states, levels of self-efficacy, and difficulties coping with the disease. Finally, patients were asked about their desire to receive psychological assistance. RESULTS: Only 20% of patients expressed a desire for psychological help. These patients were lower in age and had previous history of mood disorders and reported higher discouragement and coping difficulties. These variables explained 30.6% of variance. CONCLUSIONS: Although psycho-oncologists can provide helpful interventions, the percentage of patients interested in receiving psychological assistance in this study is low. Although further studies are needed, results from this study suggest methods that could easily be used by oncologists and nurses to identify patients who would like to receive psychological support.

Adapted ice cream as a nutritional supplement in cancer patients: impact on quality of life and nutritional status.

AIMS: The aim of this study was to assess the impact of adapted ice cream as a dietary supplement on the quality of life (QLQ) of malnourished patients with cancer. MATERIAL AND METHODS: We present an exploratory prospective observational study comparing two patterns of nutrition in cancer patients admitted during the study period who presented malnutrition disorders: adapted ice cream (Group I: 39 patients) and nutritional supplements (Group II: 31 patients). Patients were selected from two different hospitals from the same Oncologic Institute. QLQ was evaluated with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and QLQ of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ C30). Nutrition was determined by the PG-SGA test. RESULTS: HADS showed significant differences in anxiety (p = 0.023) and depression (p = 0.011) at the end of the study only in Group I. QLQ-C30 revealed statistically significant differences in baseline measures of global dimension between the two groups (Group I: 40.64-56.36 CI; Group II: 25.70-43.11 CI; p = 0.017). Differences were also present in the social dimension (Group I: 77.42-93.51 CI; Group II: 55.85-82.85 CI; p = 0.039). Statistically significant differences were observed between the two groups at the end of the study in the global scale: Group I had 49.36-63.88 CI and Group II had 33.05-51.88 CI (p = 0.016), and in the fatigue scale: Group I had 36.19-53.83 CI and Group II had mean = 65.87, 52.50-79.23 CI (p = 0.007). CONCLUSIONS: The administration of ice cream could cover, in part, the social aspect of food and improve QLQ in malnourished cancer patients. These results are encouraging and deserve further confirmation.

Evidence-based consensus recommendations to improve the quality of life in prostate cancer treatment.

INTRODUCTION: Prostate cancer (PC) is one of the tumours with the highest incidence in recent years. PC therapies have several adverse effects. A panel consensus recommendation has been made to prevent or ameliorate complications in PC treatment to improve quality of life. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifteen specialists have met to analyse the different toxicities associated with PC treatment. Each medical specialist performed a National Library of Medicine PubMed search citations searching about these secondary effects and his specialty from 1999 to 2009 to propose measures for their prevention/amelioration. RESULTS: Surgery is associated with incontinence and impotence. Radiotherapy can produce acute, late urological and gastrointestinal toxicity. Brachytherapy can produce acute urinary retention. Chemotherapy is associated with haematotoxicity, peripheral neuropathy and diarrhoea, and hormone therapy can produce osteoporosis, metabolic syndrome, cognitive and muscular alterations, cardiotoxicity, etc. CONCLUSIONS: Improvement in surgical techniques and technology (IMRT/IGRT) can prevent surgical and radiotherapeutic toxicity, respectively. Brachytherapy toxicity can be prevented with precise techniques to preserve the urethra. Chemotherapy toxicity can be prevented with personalized schedules of treatment and close follow-up of iatrogenia and hormone therapy toxicity can be prevented with close follow-up of possible secondary effects.