Trajectories of quality of life among Chinese patients diagnosed with nasopharynegeal cancer.

Objective: This secondary longitudinal analysis describes distinct quality of life trajectories during eight months of radiation therapy (RT) among patients with nasopharyngeal cancer (NPC) and examines factors differentiating these trajectories.

Methods: 253 Chinese patients with NPC scheduled for RT were assessed at pre-treatment, and 4 months and 8 months later on QoL (Chinese version of the FACT-G), optimism, pain, eating function, and patient satisfaction. Latent growth mixture modelling identified different trajectories within each of four QoL domains: Physical, Emotional, Social/family, and Functional well-being.

Interpreting differences in patterns of supportive care needs between patients with breast cancer and patients with colorectal cancer.

Background: Understanding cancer patients' supportive care needs can help optimize health-care systems and inform services development. We therefore examined the prevalence of supportive care needs in Chinese breast (BC) and colorectal cancer (CRC) patients to identify prevalence and correlates of unmet needs.

Methods: We assessed supportive care needs (Supportive Care Needs Survey-Short Form), psychological distress (the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale), symptom distress (The Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form), and satisfaction with care (Patient Satisfaction Questionnaire) among 210 Chinese BC (97) or CRC (104) outpatient clinic attendees.