Background: Gross physiological perturbations necessitating the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission might exacerbate the already existing or initiate bothersome symptoms among cancer patients. There is a lack of conclusive evidence concerning the symptomatic experience among this subgroup of cancer patients particularly so in the Indian population. The aim of this prospective observational study was to elucidate the symptom prevalence and overall symptomatic distress among critically ill cancer patients at the time of admission to a medical ICU. Methods: We prospectively evaluated 110 consecutive cancer patients at the time of admission to our medical ICU for the presence and intensity of symptoms using a modified Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS). The patients/caregivers were also enquired regarding the most bothersome symptom in the past 1 week and the presence of “symptom associated sleep disturbance.” The primary outcome was the prevalence of patients with moderate (ESAS ≥ 40) and severe (ESAS ≥ 70) symptomatic distress. Results: The average age was 52.49 years with 75.45% of the respondents in the economically productive age group (21–60 years). Carcinoma breast (19.35%) and lung (14.58%) were the most common cancers among females and males, respectively. 87.27% and 60% of the patients had advanced cancer and multi-organ dysfunction, respectively. About 76.36% patients were able to complete ESAS either by themselves or with caregiver's assistance within first 24 h of ICU admission. The mean ESAS distress score was 48.04 (0–81) with 72.72% of the patients having moderate-severe symptomatic distress. Loss of appetite (92.73%) and nausea (54.55%) were the most common and the least common reported symptoms, respectively. Pain was the most common and “most distressing symptom” reported by 40% of patients with 64.55% patients reporting one or more symptoms severe enough to interfere with their sleep. Conclusion: ESAS is a user-friendly cognitive aid to make the healthcare team cognizant of the symptom existence and overall symptomatic burden among cancer patients with gross physiological perturbations. The high prevalence of moderate-severe symptom distress requires the concomitant provision of palliative and intensive care among this group of cancer patients.

Background and Objectives: Malignant spinal cord compression is an oncologic emergency, unless diagnosed early and treated appropriately, can lead to permanent neurological impairment and compromised quality of life of patients. We analyzed the epidemiology and the effect of common interventions on the outcome in these patients. Patients and Methods: We conducted a prospective study of 77 patients in the year 2014 and recorded relevant patient and disease characteristics. All patients received corticosteroids. Eight patients were operated upon, and radiotherapy was delivered in 62 patients. Results: Most of the patients were in the age group of 41–60 years and there was no gender preponderance in patients. Female breast cancer was the most common incident (15.5%) malignancy followed by multiple myeloma, lung, and prostatic carcinoma. Lower dorsal spine was the most common site of compression (35%) followed by lumbar (31%) and mid-dorsal (26%) spine. 70 (91%) patients had cord compression subsequent to bone metastasis while as other patients had leptomeningeal metastasis. In 31 (40%) patients, spinal cord compression was the presenting symptom. Overall, only 26 patients had motor improvement after treatment. Conclusion: Grade of power before treatment was predictive of response to treatment and overall outcome of motor or sensory functions. Neurodeficit of more than 10 days duration was associated with poor outcome in neurological function.

Background: End-of-life dreams and visions (ELDVs) are not uncommon and are experienced by many near the time of death. These visions can occur months, weeks, days or hours before death. We wanted to document ELDVs, if any, in rural and urban settings in India, where talking about death is usually considered a taboo and also to compare its incidence with the urban population. Principle Research Question: Do terminally ill patients receiving home care in rural and urban India experience ELDVs? If yes, then an enquiry into the nature of such ELDVs. Study Design: Prospective, cohort based, with a mixed-methods research design. Methodology: 60 terminally ill patients with Palliative Performance Scale of <40, who consented to participate in the study were enrolled and questioned about the occurrence of ELDVs if any. Questions were both closed-ended and open ended regarding the content, frequency, recall, associated symptom burden, etc. Results: 63.3% cases reported experiencing ELDVs. 55.5% of the rural patients reported ELDVs while 66.6% of the urban patients did the same. 78.9% (30) of the subjects were able to recall the ELDVs vividly and in detail, 13.1% (5) subjects were able to recall somewhat and 7.8% (3) subjects had trouble in recalling them. 84.2% (32) subjects reported the ELDVs as 'distressing'. 30 subjects (78.9%) reported seeing 'deceased' people, be it relatives, friends or acquaintances. 12 (31.5%) saw living friends and relatives, 52.6% (20) saw people or forms that they did not recognize, 21% (8) visualized making preparations or going on a journey. 76.3% (29) patients had a symptom burden of >7 (on a VAS of 1-10), which corresponded to 'severe distress'. 94.7% (36) patients felt much better having discussed their ELDVs with the team. Conclusions: The results of our study suggest that ELDVs are not uncommon in India and the incidence does not differ significantly between rural and urban population. Our subjects found them to be distressing initially, but felt better after discussing it with our team. There was a direct correlation between severity of symptoms and occurrence and frequency of ELDVs. Another finding exclusive to our study was that the persons visualized in ELDVs did not threaten or scare the patient and the known persons visualized were seen as they were in their prime of health. We feel that addressing such 'issues' is of paramount importance with a view to providing holistic care. I feel that they strongly suggest the presence of life after death and when properly explained, can reinforce a sense of hope.

Aim: Psychological distress is common among patients affected by cancer. In this study, we examined the relationship between resilience, social support, and hopelessness among cancer patients treated with curative and palliative care. Patients and Methods: Sixty cancer patients in the age range of 18–65 years were randomly selected and divided into two groups based on their treatment intent namely, curative care (n = 30) and palliative care (n = 30). Both groups were assessed by the following instruments: Bharathiar University Resilience Scale, Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support and Beck Hopelessness Scale. Results: Resilience was significantly associated with less hopelessness and higher levels of perceived social support. Conclusion: Cancer patients are found to be resilient, and the role of social support and hopelessness on promoting resilience cannot be ignored.

Context: Breast cancer is the most commonly occurring female cancer in the world. Research gap exists regarding emotional support for breast cancer patients. Aim: The main aim of this study was to compare the efficiency of Emotional Support- Focused Nurse directed Intervention on serum cortisol among arm I, II and III in breast cancer patients. Methods: The study was designed to compare the effectiveness of emotional support focused nurse directed intervention in terms of verbal, written and telephone basis on serum cortisol among breast cancer patients in Cancer Centre at Erode. Participants were randomly allocated by using Sequentially Numbered Opaque Sealed Envelope (SNOSE) method. 2 ml of blood samples were collected from 30 breast cancer patients who were selected randomly by adopting random number table, 10 in each experimental arm during evening at 18 hour; radioimmunoassay method was used to measure the level of serum cortisol before and after intervention. The intervention was given twice in a week for the duration of 30-45 minutes, in which early 20-30 minutes spares to express thoughts and feelings of the participants and subsequent 10-15 minutes for rendering informational support and later follow up session for the period of 1 month. Results: Emotional support was effective in reducing serum cortisol level among breast cancer patients. There was no statistically significant difference between arms on serum cortisol levels. Conclusions: Marginal differences were noted between posttest mean scores of serum cortisol among verbal, written and telephone arms. Further emotional support can be rendered according to the preference of the breast cancer patients.

Backgrounds and Aim: Cancer process is a traumatic period for both patients and their caregivers. Caregivers of the patients use various coping methods to minimize the effects of anxiety-creating negativities in their daily lives. The present study aimed to examine the coping attitudes adopted by the patients and caregivers and the effects of this process upon the quality of life (QoL) of caregivers. Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted on three groups of (i) 74 patients consisting of those hospitalized in the department of medical oncology in tertiary care hospital or coming to the health center for chemotherapy treatment as cancer outpatients and (ii) 46 caregivers of patients; and control group 46 healthy individuals. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with the study patients to administer a short sociodemographic questionnaire, coping attitudes assessment scale (COPE), and Short Form-36 (SF-36) QoL scale. Results: Statistically significant differences were recorded among patients, caregivers, and control groups in terms of “problem-focused coping” and “dysfunctional coping” the COPE scale (P = 0.001, P = 0.017). According to scores taken from the SF-36 scale, there was a statistically significant difference between caregivers and control groups in all parameters (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Patients and caregivers should be encouraged to use the coping methods related to the source of the problem rather than the dysfunctional coping methods. Evaluation of the QoL indicators of not only the patients but also their caregivers enables to formulate a more integrated approach and detection of the expectations of the caregivers.

Aim: The aim of the study was to understand the phenomenon of posttraumatic growth (PTG) in women survivors of breast cancer from an Indian perspective. Settings and Design: It was a mixed method, cross-sectional, and exploratory design wherein in-depth qualitative data covering a broader area of experiences were gathered from a sub-section of the larger quantitative sample (n = 50). The qualitative sample consisted of 15 Indian women from urban communities of Southern and Eastern India. Sampling method was purposive in nature. Subjects and Methods: Semi-structured interview schedule was developed by researchers based on a review of literature. In-depth interviews were audio recorded after their permissions were obtained and carried out at homes and offices of participants. All participants spoke English. Qualitative data were collected until no new phenomenological information emerged through the interviews. Data Management and Analysis: Descriptive phenomenological approach was utilized to analyze the interview data. It focuses on understanding one's life experience from the first person's point of view. Results: Consistent with other literature, PTG was evident in varying forms through positive changes in perspective toward life, better understanding of self, closer, and warmer relationships, and richer spiritual dimension of life. Conclusions: These findings have implications for promoting holistic cancer care and identifying ways to promote PTG through the initial stages of cancer care into survivorship trajectory.

Background and Aim: The psychological changes and physiological limitations during multiple sclerosis (MS) disease diminish the social relations. Consequently, losing social supports leads to more physical and psychological complications such as fatigue syndromes. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the relationship of social support and fatigue syndromes in MS patients. Methods: This study was a descriptive-analytic which randomly selected 46 patients with MS. The patients evaluated through demographic information, standard modified social support scale, fatigue severity scale, modified fatigue impact scale, and fatigue descriptive scale. Gathered data analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistical Pearson's correlation coefficient. Results: Mean score for variables were as following: Fatigue severity 4/3 ± 1/6, perceived fatigue 34/6 ± 19/5, quality of fatigue 62 ± 3/9, and social support 65/6 ± 23/1, respectively. According to the Pearson statistical test, there was signification association between social support with fatigue severity (P = 0.002 and r = −0.474), fatigue perception (P = 0.001 and = −0.478), and fatigue perception sub-scales, i.e. physical (P = 0.005, r = −0.432), cognitive (P = 0.003, r = −0.0457), and psychosocial (P = 0.009, r = −0.341), respectively. However, there was not significant relationship between social support and fatigue quality (P = 0.59). Conclusion: According to the results of current study, all aspects of social support can impact fatigue symptoms in MS patients. Therefore, it is suggested to develop educational programs for caregivers of patients to improve the mental and physical quality of life of patients.

Introduction: Childhood cancer is the leading cause of death among children. Leukemia is one of the most common childhood cancers. Objective: The objective of this study was to explore the experiences of mothers on parenting children with leukemia. Materials and Methods: A qualitative approach with phenomenological design was used. To collect depth information from the mothers of children with leukemia, purposive sampling technique was adopted. Data were collected from ten mothers. Semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect the data. Data were analyzed using Husserl's method. Result: The themes derived are the pivotal moment in life, the experience of being with a seriously ill child, having to keep distance with the relatives, overcoming the financial and social commitments, responding to challenges, experience of faith as being key to survival, health concerns of the present and future, and optimism. Conclusion: The study concluded that chronic illness such as leukemia in children results in negative impact on the child and on the mother.

Advanced mucinous ovarian cancer is a separate entity and has different biological behaviour. There is a wide range of therapeutic challenges and dilemmas in the management of these patients. The authors present a case of advanced ovarian mucinous cystadenocarcinoma with pseudomyxoma peritonei who had poor response to standard neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This case is highlighted to emphasize the challenges in the decision making for the management of advanced mucinous ovarian cancer.

With increasing prevalence of multiple sclerosis worldwide, India too has transitioned from low to medium prevalence region. This increases the overall burden of a number of people suffering from a chronic progressive disorder. Such scenario underlines the need for an early comprehensive and holistic patient management plan, aiming to provide a better quality of life. The presented case is one such example of a patient-centered, and interdisciplinary team approach for better management of a patient suffering from an incurable, progressive disorder. As physiotherapists tend to spend a considerable amount of time with their patients on a regular basis, it becomes imperative to view all the patient related problems from a wider angle and endeavor to address each of them individually/collaboratively. In a palliative care setting, physiotherapy can no longer be considered as only physical symptom management approach but a patient care approach considering their entire physical, emotional, psychosocial, and spiritual needs. This novel case report shall serve as a guiding strategy for physiotherapists to work in the domain of palliative care.

Pain caused by tumor infiltration of the sacral area remains a major clinical challenge. Patients with poor pain control despite comprehensive medical management may be treated with neuraxial techniques such as continuous epidural or spinal anesthetic. We report a case in which a patient with metastatic breast cancer experienced inadequate pain relief after multiple intravenous pain management regimens as well as intrathecal (IT) drug delivery. The concentration of local anesthetics delivered via the IT catheter was limited due to the patient's baseline motor weakness which would be exacerbated with higher concentrations of local anesthetics. Thus, a decision was made to insert an epidural catheter via a retrograde technique to provide the patient with a “band of anesthesia” which would provide profound sensory blockade without concomitant motor weakness. Pain refractory to other modalities of pain control was successfully treated with the epidural technique.