Abstract 357P
Background
Advanced Head and neck cancer despite multimodal treatment is associated with disfigurement, extreme pain, and psychological distress. To study the effects of a multimodal palliative approach involving psychological counselling, psychometric dug therapy and pain-relieving blocks to ameliorate the total pain state of such patient during end of life care.
Methods
This is a prospective, single-arm observational study conducted on 20 head and neck cancer patients, from January 2015 to December 2018. Patients who were on palliative treatment were processed for self-report of severe psychological distress and intractable pain by means of innovative distress score and quality of life index and the numeric pain rating scale and given combination therapy with antidepressants, antipsychotics, pain killers and neurolytic blocks along with repeated counselling sessions.
Results
20 patients were included in this study, of which 66.6 % were males and 33.3% were female. Age range was 44-79 years and they had mean pain scores of 7.61 (SD 1.577) before the intervention and mean distress scores of 8.33 (SD 1.237) suffering for a duration of 72.5 days (SD 24.81). A significant reduction in pain was noted by a decrease in mean Numeric rating scale to 2.83 (SD 0.618) and extension of the mean duration of analgesia to 24.33 days (SD 6.84) and reduction in distress score to 3.78 (SD 0.732). Pre- and post-procedure mean morphine requirement was also significantly reduced, at the end of 2 weeks. Significant easing of distress and improvement in performance was observed in all patients.
Conclusions
The application of a multimodal palliative approach to progressive head and neck cancer patients is an easy, safe, and cost-effective method to improve quality of life. Medical oncologists must be sensitized to elicit and measure the distress in such patients. Counseling sessions and pharmacotherapy, if indicated, are very effective in the care of such patients.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
Rajiv Gandhi cancer Institute and Research Centre, New Delhi.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.
Resources from the same session
273P - MALT1- A20 and NF-κB expression pattern in patients with non-Hodgkin lymphomas
Presenter: Alshimaa Alhanafy
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
274P - Treatment stratification of non-Hodgkin large B-cell lymphoma patients based on the identification of mutational c-MYC gene
Presenter: Raimkul Karakulov
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
275P - Primary central nervous system lymphoma treated with high-dose methotrexate and rituximab: Preliminary results in Vietnam
Presenter: Gia Nguyen Hoang
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
276P - Chronic myelod leukemia in chronic phase (CML-CP) with lymphadenopathy at diagnosis: A retrospective analysis
Presenter: GEDALA Veni Prasanna
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
277P - Characteristics of BCR-ABL rearrangement variants in Pakistani patients with chronic myeloid leukemia and acute lymphocytic leukemia
Presenter: Zeeshan Ahmed
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
278P - A systematic literature review of the cost-effectiveness of treatments, costs, and resource use in patients with Burkitt lymphoma
Presenter: Gautamjeet Mangat
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
280P - Risk stratification of CML-CP in a real-world scenario, comparison of S.H.E. with rate of fall of BCR/ABL
Presenter: Kundan Mishra
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
281P - Selective depletion of tumour-associated SAMHD1 by HSP90 inhibitors enhances the anti-AML effect of cytarabine
Presenter: Jing Sun
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
282P - Inhibition of miR-144 and miR-199 promote myeloma pathogenesis via upregulation of versican and FAK/STAT3 signaling
Presenter: Nidh Gupta
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract
283P - Effect of study-level factors on treatment-free remission rate in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Presenter: Jinhyun Cho
Session: Poster display session
Resources:
Abstract