Karen L. Syrjala

Relaxation and imagery and cognitive-behavioral training reduce pain during cancer treatment: a controlled clinical trial.

&NA; Few controlled clinical trials of psychological interventions for cancer pain relief exist in spite of frequent support for their importance as adjuncts to medical treatment. This study compared oral mucositis pain levels in 4 groups of cancer patients receiving bone marrow transplants (BMT): (1) treatment as usual control, (2) therapist support, (3) relaxation and imagery training, and (4) training in a package of cognitive‐behavioral coping skills which included relaxation and imagery. A total of 94 patients completed the study which involved two training sessions prior to treatment and twice a week ‘booster’ sessions during the first 5 weeks of treatment. Results confirmed our hypothesis that patients who received either relaxation and imagery alone or patients who received the package of cognitive‐behavioral coping skills would report less pain than patients in the other 2 groups. The hypothesis that the cognitive‐behavioral skills package would have an additive effect beyond relaxation and imagery alone was not confirmed. Average visual analogue scale (VAS) report of pain within the therapist support group was not significantly lower than the control group (P = 0.103) nor significantly higher than the training groups. Patient reports of relative helpfulness of the interventions for managing pain and nausea matched the results of VAS reports. From these results, we conclude that relaxation and imagery training reduces cancer treatment‐related pain; adding cognitive‐behavioral skills to the relaxation with imagery does not, on average, further improve pain relief.

Implementing Guidelines for Cancer Pain Management: Results of a Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

PURPOSE Pain and symptom management is an integral part of the clinical practice of oncology. A number of guidelines have been developed to assist the clinician in optimizing comfort care. We implemented clinical guidelines for cancer pain management in the community setting and evaluated whether these guidelines improved care. PATIENTS AND METHODS Eighty-one cancer patients, aged 37 to 76 years, were enrolled onto a prospective, longitudinal, randomized controlled study from the outpatient clinic settings of 26 western Washington-area medical oncologists. A multilevel treatment algorithm based on the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research Guidelines for Cancer Pain Management was compared with standard-practice (control) pain and symptom management therapies used by community oncologists. The primary outcome of interest was pain (Brief Pain Inventory); secondary outcomes of interest were all other symptoms (Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale) and quality of life (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy Scale). RESULTS Patients randomized to the pain algorithm group achieved a statistically significant reduction in usual pain intensity, measured as slope scores, when compared with standard community practice (P < .02). Concurrent chemotherapy and patient adherence to treatment were significant mediators of worst pain. There were no significant differences in other symptoms or quality of life between the two treatment groups. CONCLUSION This guideline implementation study supports the use of algorithmic decision making in the management of cancer pain. These findings suggest that comprehensive pain assessment and evidence-based analgesic decision-making processes do enhance usual pain outcomes.

Hypnosis or cognitive behavioral training for the reduction of pain and nausea during cancer treatment: a controlled clinical trial

&NA; Few controlled clinical trials have tested the efficacy of psychological techniques for reducing cancer pain or post‐chemotherapy nausea and emesis. In this study, 67 bone marrow transplant patients with hematological malignancies were randomly assigned to one of four groups prior to beginning transplantation conditioning:hypnosis training (HYP);cognitive behavioral coping skills training (CB);therapist contact control (TC); ortreatment as usual (TAU; no treatment control). Patients completed measures of physical functioning (Sickness Impact Profile; SIP) and psychological functioning (Brief Symptom Inventory; BSI), which were used as covariates in the analyses. Biodemographic variables included gender, age and a risk variable based on diagnosis and number of remissions or relapses. Patients in the HYP, CB and TC groups met with a clinical psychologist for two pre‐transplant training sessions and ten in‐hospital “booster” sessions during the course of transplantation. Forty‐five patients completed the study and provided all covariate data, and 80% of the time series outcome data. Analyses of the principal study variables indicated that hypnosis was effective in reducing reported oral pain for patients undergoing marrow transplantation. Risk, SIP, and BSI pre‐transplant were found to be effective predictors of inpatient physical symptoms. Nausea, emesis and opioid use did not differ significantly between the treatment groups. The cognitive behavioral intervention, as applied in this study, was not effective in reducing the symptoms measured.

Late Effects of Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation Among 10-Year Adult Survivors Compared With Case-Matched Controls

PURPOSE To determine late effects of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) on health problems and health-related quality of life for 10-year survivors. PATIENTS AND METHODS Four hundred five adults consented to the study before HCT. Medical records and standardized self-report measures were maintained prospectively. After 10 years, 137 survivors and nontransplant controls, case-matched on age, sex, and race, completed self-report of medical problems, symptoms, and health-related quality of life. RESULTS Survivors and controls had similar rates of hospitalization and most diseases, but survivors reported an average of 3.5 medical problems versus 1.7 for controls (P < .001). Survivors reported more musculoskeletal stiffness, cramps, weakness and joint swelling (P < .001), cataract surgery (P < .001), hepatitis C (P = .004), sexual problems for men (P = .01) and women (P < .001), restrictions in social function (P = .002), memory and attention concerns (P = .003), urinary frequency or leaking (P = .006), use of psychotropic medication (P = .009), and denial of life and health insurance (P < .001). Survivors and controls did not differ in self-reported rates of osteoporosis, hypothyroidism, employment, marital satisfaction, divorce, or psychological health. CONCLUSION Although indistinguishable in many respects, survivors had more medical needs than controls. Health problems were not focused on specific diseases or limited to survivors with readily identifiable risk factors. Musculoskeletal problems require both screening and research into etiologies and effective treatments. Osteoporosis and hypothyroidism may be underdiagnosed. Survivors require screening for sexual problems, urinary frequency, mood and need for antidepressants or benzodiazepines.

Life Expectancy in Patients Surviving More Than 5 Years After Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

PURPOSE Hematopoietic cell transplantation can cure hematologic malignancies and other diseases, but this treatment can also cause late complications. Previous studies have evaluated the cumulative effects of late complications on survival, but longer-term effects on life expectancy after hematopoietic cell transplantation have not been assessed. PATIENTS AND METHODS We used standard methods to evaluate mortality, projected life expectancy, and causes of death in a cohort of 2,574 patients who survived without recurrence of the original disease for at least 5 years after allogeneic or autologous hematopoietic cell transplantation from 1970 through 2002. Sex- and age-specific comparisons were made with US population data. Results Estimated survival of the cohort at 20 years after transplantation was 80.4% (95% CI, 78.1% to 82.6%). During 22,923 person-years of follow-up, 357 deaths occurred. Mortality rates remained four- to nine-fold higher than the expected population rate for at least 30 years after transplantation, yielding an estimated 30% lower life expectancy compared with that in the general population, regardless of current age. In rank order, the leading causes of excess deaths were second malignancies and recurrent disease, followed by infections, chronic graft-versus-host disease, respiratory diseases, and cardiovascular diseases. CONCLUSION Patients who have survived for at least 5 years after hematopoietic cell transplantation without recurrence of the original disease have a high probability of surviving for an additional 15 years, but life expectancy is not fully restored. Further effort is needed to reduce the burden of disease and treatment-related complications in this population.

Comorbidity-Age Index: A Clinical Measure of Biologic Age Before Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation

PURPOSE Age has long been used as a major factor for assessing suitability for allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). The HCT-comorbidity index (HCT-CI) was developed as a measure of health status to predict mortality risk after HCT. Whether age, comorbidities, or both should guide decision making for HCT is unknown. PATIENTS AND METHODS Data from 3,033 consecutive recipients of HLA-matched grafts from five institutions contributed to this analysis. Patients were randomly divided into a training set to develop weights for age intervals and a validation set to assess the performance of prognostic models. RESULTS In the training set, patients age 20 to 39 years, 40 to 49 years, 50 to 59 years, and ≥ 60 years had hazard ratios for nonrelapse mortality (NRM) of 1.21 (P = .29), 1.48 (P = .04), 1.75 (P = .004), and 1.84 (P = .005), respectively, compared with those age younger than 20 years. Consequently, age ≥ 40 years was assigned a weight of 1 to be added to the HCT-CI to constitute a composite comorbidity/age index. In the validation set, the composite comorbidity/age score had statistically significantly higher c-statistic estimates for prediction of NRM (0.664 v 0.556; P < .001) and survival (0.682 v 0.560; P < .001) compared with age, respectively. Patients with comorbidity/age scores of 0 to 2 had comparable mortality risks regardless of conditioning regimens. Patients with scores of 3 to 4 and ≥ 5 had statistically significant higher mortality risks after high-dose versus nonmyeloablative regimens. CONCLUSION Age is a poor prognostic factor. The proposed composite measure allows integration of both comorbidities and age into clinical decision making and comparative-effectiveness research of HCT.

Survivorship care planning after the Institute of Medicine recommendations: how are we faring?

IntroductionThis study evaluates the concordance of treatment summaries (TSs) and survivorship care plans (SCPs) delivered to breast cancer survivors within the LIVESTRONG™ Network of Survivorship Centers of Excellence with Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations and describes additional structure/process variables.MethodSeven NCI-designated comprehensive cancer centers and six community-based centers participated. TS/SCPs for 65 patients were rated against IOM recommendations using a study-derived checklist, and surveys were administered to better understand the structure and process of delivering TSs/SCPs.ResultsOn average, fewer than half of IOM content recommendations were met for TSs (M = 46%) and less than two thirds for SCPs (M = 59%). No sites achieved ≥75% overall concordance with IOM recommendations for TSs and only two of 13 met this criterion for SCPs. Content domain scores across sites varied widely, as did the number of sites addressing domain content with ≥75% concordance. Nonetheless, resources required for document preparation and delivery were substantial.DiscussionGaps in concordance with IOM recommendations exist even in dedicated survivorship centers. A substantial time burden was also noted. Further research is needed to determine which informational elements are essential, to develop and test strategies for improving efficiency and reach, and to determine if outcomes of survivorship care planning warrant the resources required in their preparation and delivery.Implications for survivorsTSs and SCPs have been recommended for all cancer survivors. Essential elements must be determined, approaches made more efficient, outcome improvements demonstrated, and cost-benefit analyses determined before survivors should expect widespread implementation of this recommendation for survivorship care.

Evidence for a biopsychosocial model of cancer treatment-related pain

&NA; The contribution of non‐biomedical factors to the experience of pain in the cancer patient has not been well established. Although intensity of pain reports cannot be fully explained by extent of identifiable nociception or neuropathy, behavioral factors have been only modest predictors of cancer pain report. Most studies that have demonstrated associations between pain and behavioral factors were conducted with highly selected groups of patients with all data collected concurrently. Thus the predictive value of the behavioral factors has been indeterminable. In this study, 358 bone marrow transplant patients (196 male, 162 female) completed pretransplant biomedical, physical functioning, psychological and social evaluations. For 25 days following transplantation, patients completed daily visual analogue scale oral pain reports and nurses recorded opioid use. At least once a week oral medicine staff completed a standardized, validated measure of observable oral mucositis as a measure of nociception. Results indicated that psychological and social variables were significant predictors of pain in this sample. Distress, particularly distress specific to the transplant, was the strongest predictor, while self‐efficacy and coping style were weaker, but significantly associated with pain report for either men or women. While the psychological and social variables were significant predictors of pain, most of the variance in pain report was explained by biomedical variables rather than psychological or social variables. These results are consistent with those of previous research and indicate that biopsychosocial associations predate the onset of pain, but are at best modest predictors of cancer patients who will report greater or lesser pain. Clinical applications and limits of these data are discussed, particularly in relation to emotional distress, coping style and the differences found in predicting pain in men and women.

Prevalence and predictors of sexual dysfunction in long-term survivors of marrow transplantation.

PURPOSE To describe the prevalence of sexual difficulties in men and women after marrow transplantation (MT), and to define medical, demographic, sexual, and psychologic predictors of sexual dysfunction 3 years after MT. PATIENTS AND METHODS Four hundred seven adult MT patients were assessed pretransplantation. Survivors repeated measures of psychologic and sexual functioning at 1 and 3 years posttransplantation. RESULTS Data were analyzed from 102 event-free 3-year survivors who defined themselves as sexually active. Men and women did not differ in sexual satisfaction pretransplantation. At 1 and 3 years posttransplantation, women reported significantly more sexual dysfunction than men. Eighty percent of women and 29% of men reported at least one sexual problem by 3 years after MT. No pretransplantation variables were significant predictors of 3-year sexual satisfaction for women. For men, pretransplantation variables of older age, poorer psychologic function, not being married, and lower sexual satisfaction predicted sexual dissatisfaction at 3 years (R2=.28; P < .001). Women who were more dissatisfied 3 years after MT did not receive hormone replacement therapy (HRT) at 1 -year posttransplantation and were less satisfied at 1 year, but not pretransplantation (R2=.35; P < .001). CONCLUSION Sexual problems are significant in the lives of MT survivors, particularly for women. Although HRT before 1 year posttransplantation improves sexual function, it does not ensure sexual quality of life. Intervention for women is needed to apply hormonal, mechanical, and behavioral methods to prevent sexual difficulties as early after transplantation as possible.

Sexual Function Measurement and Outcomes in Cancer Survivors and Matched Controls

Depending on diagnosis, gender, and treatment, as few as 10% or as many as 90% of cancer survivors have reported sexual problems. Inconsistencies and inadequacies in measurement have confounded efforts to fully understand and treat these difficulties. A Sexual Function Questionnaire (SFQ) was developed and administered to 400 cancer survivors or matched, noncancer controls. Participants were sexually active or inactive, male or female, heterosexual or homosexual. Nine subscales and two summary scores had internal reliabilities above .80, with factor loadings above .50 for all items. Test‐retest reliability, as well as content, construct, criterion, discriminant, and confirmatory validity supported the measures psychometric strength. Cancer survivors indicated poorer function than controls, with postmenopausal women reporting the poorest sexual function. Survivors’ sexual function dropped significantly posttreatment compared to pretreatment. The SFQ provided a valid, reliable outcome measure for use in cancer research or with other medical groups and physically healthy subjects.