Objective: Individuals with low socioeconomic status (SES) exhibit higher rates of mental disorders; however, data in oncological populations are insufficient. This study investigated the course of DSM-5 mental disorders in cancer patients, stratified by SES, over a period of 1.5 years following initial cancer diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Cancer places a psychological burden on both patients and their relatives. Perceived social support influences the extent of psychological distress. Our aim was to investigate associations between positive support, detrimental interactions, depression and anxiety in patient-relative dyads in the initial period after diagnosis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFZ Evid Fortbild Qual Gesundhwes
December 2024
Background: To what extent and under what conditions electronically captured patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) can be used in routine medical care and contribute to improved patient care is a widely discussed question. In the field of oncology, few studies in Germany have focused this topic that go beyond the scope of time-limited studies.
Method: First, we present the centrally coordinated collection of ePROs in the routine care of a comprehensive cancer center of the German Cancer Aid in its development, and then describe its qualitative dimension.
Background: The purpose of this study was to provide the 4-week prevalence estimates of mental disorders in newly diagnosed cancer patients in relation to socioeconomic status (SES).
Patients And Methods: We enrolled newly diagnosed patients with a confirmed solid tumor within 2 months of diagnosis. We calculated patients' SES on the basis of their educational level, professional qualification, income and occupational status.
Objective: Control beliefs have been found to influence adaption to a cancer diagnosis. This study explored interrelationships among education, control beliefs, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with breast, prostate, colorectal, and lung cancer and tested weather control beliefs act as mediators.
Methods: Six hundred and five patients with breast (n = 205), prostate (n = 205), colorectal (n = 124), and lung (n = 71) cancer from two German cancer registries answered standardized questionnaires.
Purpose: Patients with cancer suffer from a wide range of psychological distress. Nevertheless, in the literature low utilization rates of psychooncological services are reported. Various factors may influence the utilization of professional support during inpatient care.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Sarcomas are rare cancers and very heterogeneous in their location, histological subtype, and treatment. Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) of sarcoma patients has rarely been investigated in longitudinal studies.
Methods: Here, we assessed adult sarcoma patients and survivors between September 2017 and February 2020, and followed-up for one year in 39 study centers in Germany.
Background: Studies on cancer patients show a moderately high relevance of perceived stigmatization. However, no studies have explored the perceived stigmatization in relation to cancer-associated pain. In this work, we analysed the relationship between pain and perceived stigmatization across a large sample of four major cancer entities.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychother Psychosom Med Psychol
August 2023
Background: Studies on stigmatization of cancer patients show a moderate or high relevance of perceived stigmatization. To date, there are no studies with explicit focus on stigma in relation to oncological therapy. We investigated the role of oncological therapy on perceived stigma in a large sample.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPurpose: Adequate, needs-oriented psycho-oncological care contributes to reducing psychological distress in cancer patients and their relatives and improving quality of life. Regarding the precise determination of objective and subjective needs, there are often discrepancies in practice between the screening instrument completed by patients, the clinical impression of the treatment team, and the judgment of the psycho-oncology team.
Methods: The present multicenter study "OptiScreen", involving three German Comprehensive Cancer Centers (Hannover, Leipzig, Dresden), aims to professionalize psychosocial screening to enable targeted and needs-based allocation to psycho-oncological support.
Objective: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) and gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) are a group of rare malignant tumours with a high and heterogenous disease burden. As evidence is scarce, we analysed the prevalence of increased emotional distress and identified distress-associated factors in these patients.
Methods: The PROSa-study (Burden and medical care of sarcoma) was conducted between 2017 and 2020 in 39 study centres.
Background: Although the majority of German patients in a palliative state prefer to die at home, the actual place of death is most often a hospital. Unplanned hospital readmissions (UHA) not only contradict most patients' preferences but also increase the probability of an aggressive end-of-life treatment. As limited knowledge is available which factors contribute to an UHA, the PRePP-project aims to explore predictors related to informal caregivers (IC) as well as medical and structural factors.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFGeburtshilfe Frauenheilkd
February 2022
This is an update of the interdisciplinary S3-guideline on the Diagnosis, Therapy and Follow-up of Cervical Cancer (AWMF Registry No. 032/033OL), published in March 2021. The work on the updated guideline was funded by German Cancer Aid as part of the German Guideline Program in Oncology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis update of the interdisciplinary S3 guideline on the Diagnosis, Therapy and Follow-up of Cervical Cancer (AWMF Registry No. 032/033OL) was published in March 2021. This updated guideline was funded by German Cancer Aid as part of the German Guideline Program in Oncology.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: The choice of drug treatment in advanced soft tissue sarcoma (STS) continues to be a challenge regarding efficacy, quality of life (QoL) and toxicity. Unlike other cancer types, where integrating patient-reported outcomes (PRO) has proven to be beneficial for QoL, there is no such evidence in patients with STS as of now. The YonLife trial aimed to explore the effect of a tailored multistep intervention on QoL, symptoms and survival in patients with advanced STS undergoing treatment with trabectedin as well as identifying predictors of QoL.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: As satisfaction with information received is an important precondition of adherence to treatment in cancer patients, we aimed to examine the level of perceived information, information satisfaction and information needs, and examine the prospective association between information satisfaction and anxiety.
Methods: In a multicenter study in Germany, 1398 cancer patients were evaluated in terms of this at baseline, after 6 and 12 months.
Results: At baseline, the majority of patients reported to feel well-informed.
This prospective multicenter study aimed to investigate the courses of positive support (PS) and detrimental interaction (DI), two different aspects of social support, and the relation between social support and psychosocial distress and/or health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in a large sample of patients with different cancers. For this observational study, we enrolled adult patients with cancer from 13 comprehensive cancer centers (CCCs) in Germany. We included a total of 1087 patients in our analysis.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Causal attributions can result in self-incrimination and psychosocial burden. Therefore, the present study assessed assumptions about subjective causes of cancer and examines their relationships with social factors and perceived stigmatization.
Methods: In a bicentric study, 858 patients with breast, colon, prostate or lung cancer were given standardized questionnaires.
Objective: The study aimed to assess cancer patients' use of psychological care and its correlates in a large sample of cancer patients in Comprehensive Cancer Centers (CCCs) in Germany.
Methods: In a multicenter study in Germany, cancer patients with various diagnoses were evaluated for self-reported use of psychological support. We measured psychological distress, depression and anxiety, quality of life, and social support with standardized questionnaires and analyzed its association with the utilization of psychological care using multivariable logistic regression.
Aim: The aim of this official guideline published by the German Society of Gynecology and Obstetrics (DGGG) and coordinated with the German Society of Urology (DGU) and the German Society of Reproductive Medicine (DGRM) is to provide consensus-based recommendations, obtained by evaluating the relevant literature, on counseling and fertility preservation for prepubertal girls and boys as well as patients of reproductive age. Statements and recommendations for girls and women are presented below. Statements or recommendations for boys and men are not the focus of this guideline.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis study aimed to explore individual meaning systems in the course of a breast cancer disease to test the assumed positive relation between meaning and well-being and to investigate the relationship between post-traumatic growth and well-being. A total of 65 patients with breast cancer were examined 1 year after initial treatment and another year follow-up. Questionnaires addressed meaning in life (MLQ), anxiety and depression (HADS), satisfaction with life (SWLS), health-related quality of life (EQ-5D, EORTC) and post-traumatic growth (PTGI).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground And Purpose: To evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer treated with conventionally fractionated radiotherapy (CF) vs. continuous hyperfractionated accelerated radiotherapy weekend-less (CHARTWEL).
Material And Methods: The largest monocentric subgroup of the phase III CHARTWEL trial was analyzed up to three years after randomization.