Neuropalliative care in a tertiary-level hospital.

Objectives: Palliative care in neurology is a recent specialty to improve the quality of life of patients with severe neurological diseases. This study aims to determine the frequency of neurological inpatients who had indication of palliative care, and evaluate the symptomatology, demographic profile, the need for supportive measures, advance directives for life and medical history of patients in a tertiary hospital in Brazil.

Methods: This cross-sectional analytical study evaluated all patients admitted to the neurological semi-intensive care unit (ICU) at Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein with neurological conditions from February through August 2022.

A Comparison of Caregiver Burden of Patients with Advanced Cancer in Different Palliative Cancer Care Settings.

Informal caregivers may experience a significant burden while caring for cancer patients. Little is known about how caregiver burden varies across different palliative cancer care settings and the factors influencing it. We compared the severity of caregiver subjective stress burden (emotional impact) among caregivers of patients seen in the outpatient supportive care center (SCC) with those being cared for in the acute palliative care unit (PCU).

Random vs Targeted Urine Drug Testing Among Patients Undergoing Long-term Opioid Treatment for Cancer Pain.

This cohort study assesses the frequency of abnormal urine drug test findings among patients with cancer pain treated with long-term opioid therapy who underwent random and targeted testing.

Patients' Perspective of Timeliness and Usefulness of an Outpatient Supportive Care Referral at a Comprehensive Cancer Center.

Context: Current guidelines recommend early referral to palliative care for patients with advanced cancer; however, no studies have examined the optimal timing of referral from the patients' perspective.

Objectives: To examine patients' perceptions of timeliness of referral and its association with survival among patients with advanced cancer referred to an outpatient supportive care (SC) clinic.

Methods: This cross-sectional prospective study in an SC clinic at a comprehensive cancer center included patients aged 18 years or older with locally advanced, recurrent, or metastatic cancer.

Changes in the Care Setting of First Consults to Palliative and Supportive Care Over a Seven-Year Period.

Context: Optimal benefits from palliative care (PC) are achieved when first consults (PC1) occur early, in the outpatient setting. Late PC1, like those in the intensive care unit (ICU), limit these benefits.

Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of PC1 over time in the outpatient, ICU, and inpatient non-ICU settings.

Anti-cytokines in the treatment of cancer cachexia.

Cancer-related cachexia (CRC) is a multidimensional, frequent and devastating syndrome. It is mainly characterized by a loss of skeletal muscle tissue, accompanied or not by a loss of adipose tissue that leads to impaired functionality, poor quality of life, less tolerability to cancer-directed therapies, high levels of psychosocial distress, and shorter survival. Despite its clinical importance, there is a lack of effective pharmacological therapies to manage CRC.

Outcomes of Embedded Palliative Care Outpatients Initial Consults on Timing of Palliative Care Access, Symptoms, and End-of-Life Quality Care Indicators among Advanced Nonsmall Cell Lung Cancer Patients.

Objective: To determine the timing of palliative care (PC) access, symptoms, and end-of-life (EOL) quality care outcomes of patients with advanced nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC) referred to outpatients embedded palliative care consults (EPC) compared with those of outpatients palliative care consults (OPC).

Background: There are no studies comparing the outcomes of outpatients EPC consults with those of stand-alone OPC consults among patients with NSCLC.

Design: The design consists of a random sample of OPC consults (January 2009 to July 2012) and EPC consults (August 2012 to June 2013) at MD Anderson Cancer Center.

Association between Advanced Cancer Patients' Perception of Curability and Patients' Characteristics, Decisional Control Preferences, Symptoms, and End-of-Life Quality Care Outcomes.

Background: There are limited studies on factors associated with cancer patients' perception of curability.

Objective: To examine advanced cancer patient's perception of curability and its association with patient's sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, decisional control preference (DCP), symptoms, and end-of-life quality care outcomes.

Design: Secondary analysis of a study to determine the DCP and illness understanding of advanced cancer patients receiving palliative care (PC).

Continuous palliative sedation for patients with advanced cancer at a tertiary care cancer center.

Background: Palliative sedation (PS) is an intervention to treat refractory symptoms and to relieve suffering at the end of life. Its prevalence and practice patterns vary widely worldwide. The aim of our study was to evaluate the frequency, clinical indications and outcomes of PS in advanced cancer patients admitted to our tertiary comprehensive cancer center.

Assessment of adherence to the guidelines for the management of nausea and vomiting induced by chemotherapy.

Objective: To assess adherence of the prescribing physicians in a private cancer care center to the American Society of Clinical Oncology guideline for antiemetic prophylaxis, in the first cycle of antineoplastic chemotherapy.

Methods: A total of 139 chemotherapy regimens, of 105 patients, were evaluated retrospectively from 2011 to 2013.

Results: We observed 78% of non-adherence to the guideline rate.

Is there publication bias towards Brazilian articles on cancer?

Objective: To investigate whether Brazilian articles on cancer are published in journals with an impact factor and/or repercussion (measured by the number of citations) inferior to those that come from foreign organizations.

Methods: A search was carried out in PubMed for the MeSH term "neoplasm" with the limits clinical trial, affiliation of the Brazilian author(s), and interval from July 1st, 2009 to June 30, 2010. Selected for matching were non-Brazilian related articles published from three months prior to three months after the date of publication of the Brazilian study.