Randomized, Double-Blind Trial on the Impact of Word Count in Cancer Clinical Trial Consent Forms.

Purpose: This randomized, double-blind study sought to understand whether cancer clinical trial consent form verbosity detracts from patients' decision making on trial enrollment.

Methods: This trial tested mock consent forms of 2,000, 4,000, and 6,000 words. The first two comprised the two experimental arms and the third the control arm.

Chemotherapy scheduling template development using an optimization approach.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to develop a chemotherapy scheduling template that accounts for nurse resource availability and patient treatment needs to alleviate the mid-day patient load and provide quality services for patients.

Design/methodology/approach: Owing to treatment complexity in chemotherapy administration, nurses are required at the beginning, end and during treatment. When nurses are not available to continue treatment, the service is compromised, and the resource constraint is violated, which leads to inevitable delay that risks service quality.

What occurs in the other 20% of cancer patients with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV)? A single-institution qualitative study.

Purpose: Despite recent advances in prophylaxis and management, 20% of patients who receive moderately to severely emetogenic chemotherapy continue to experience nausea and vomiting. Relying on patients' own words, this study sought to capture and characterize the lived experience with chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) for this important subgroup of patients.

Methods: Solid tumor patients with a history of poorly controlled CINV provided informed consent and participated in a semi-structured interview, which was audio-recorded and transcribed.

Chemotherapy Acute Infusion Reactions: A Qualitative Report of the Perspectives of Patients With Cancer.

Objective: A growing number of cancer antineoplastic agents can cause life-threatening acute infusion reactions. Because previous studies have not studied these reactions from the perspective of patients, this study was undertaken with that objective in mind.

Methods: Patients who had an acute infusion reaction were interviewed based on the Leventhal model.

Alternative Outpatient Chemotherapy Scheduling Method to Improve Patient Service Quality and Nurse Satisfaction.

Introduction: Optimal scheduling and calendar management in an outpatient chemotherapy unit is a complex process that is driven by a need to focus on safety while accommodating a high degree of variability. Primary constraints are infusion times, staffing resources, chair availability, and unit hours.

Methods: We undertook a process to analyze our existing management models across multiple practice settings in our health care system, then developed a model to optimize safety and efficiency.

Hand Massage for Cancer Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy as Outpatients: A Pilot Study.

Context: There are no studies on the effect of volunteer-provided hand massage in a busy chemotherapy outpatient practice.

Objective: To assess the feasibility of introducing hand massage therapy into an outpatient chemotherapy unit and to evaluate the effect of the therapy on various symptoms experienced by cancer patients.

Design: A pilot, quasi-experimental, pretest-posttest study.

Should Vital Signs Be Routinely Obtained Prior to Intravenous Chemotherapy? Results From a 2-Center Study.

Background: The American Society of Clinical Oncology and the Oncology Nursing Society have issued guidelines stating that the vital signs of patients should be routinely checked on days that intravenous chemotherapy is administered. This study sought evidence to justify this approach.

Methods: This trial focused on consecutive patients with cancer from 2 institutions and evaluated outcomes during the first cycle of gemcitabine-based chemotherapy.

Capecitabine and temozolomide: design, implementation, and preliminary outcomes from a pilot project to ensure safe prescribing of oral chemotherapy.

Without adequate safety measures, oral chemotherapy can lead to undetected dosing errors. The Mayo Clinic launched a project to ensure that all capecitabine and temozolomide prescriptions receive an independent double check.

Cancer patients and their companion animals: results from a 309-patient survey on pet-related concerns and anxieties during chemotherapy.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether cancer patients, who are actively receiving cancer therapy and who sometimes have only a few months to live, have anxieties or concerns that arise as a result of not being able to care for their pets during their illness or after their demise. A survey was developed and utilized among such patients to assess whether they had pet-related concerns and anxieties and to determine whether they desired more information on available pet-related resources. Three hundred nine patients completed the survey, and 170 (55%) had a pet(s).

Are cancer survivors/patients knowledgeable about osteoporosis? Results from a survey of 285 chemotherapy-treated cancer patients and their companions.

Objective: This study assessed osteoporosis knowledge deficits among cancer patients and their spouses/partners.

Design: Single-institution survey (modified version of the Osteoporosis Knowledge Assessment Tool).

Setting: The Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

Physical activity in patients with advanced-stage cancer actively receiving chemotherapy.

Exercise has mental and physical health benefits for patients with advanced stage cancer who actively receive chemotherapy, yet little is known about patients'levels of interest in becoming more active or their confidence in increasing their activity level. A convenience sample of 128 patients with advanced-stage cancer who were receiving chemotherapy completed self-report measures assessing physical activity level, mood, and quality-of-life variables. Qualitative data on patient-perceived benefits of, and barriers to, physical activity also were collected, coded by independent raters, and organized by predominant themes.