Palliative Care Interventions: A Literature Review

According to Sun et al., palliative care interventions for Phase I clinical trial patients are not implemented early enough and, often, are forgotten altogether (2014). Throughout the article, the researchers describe the importance of educating all clinical trial patients on palliative care interventions, even if they are still seeking curative measures. Unfortunately, the researchers did not do an ideal job of creating an article title that draws readers in. The title that was selected is a basic, simple explanation of what the article holds, instead of an eye-popping draw to read the article. In my opinion, the title would not have drawn me into read the article if I was just doing a random search. Thankfully, my specific search criterion …show more content…
First, the authors specifically included the purpose of their study within the article, which was to assess whether it was possible to treat oncology patients within a Phase I clinical trial while allowing palliative care interventions to be included in their care. Next, the exact framework of this quantitative, feasibility study was not disclosed by the researchers. However, within the article, the researchers divulged that the study was based on the National Cancer Institute’s funded Program Project Grant. Unfortunately, that was the only information obtainable in regards to the framework of the study (Sun et al., …show more content…
However, it was specifically mentioned within the article that there was no financial interest competition throughout this study. In regards to data analysis within the study, the researchers entered all findings into a relational database to determine accuracy. In addition, statistical distributions were studied for normal values, and descriptive statistics were calculated. Furthermore, nonparametric analysis was used, as the sample of this study was less than twenty, and the Friedman nonparametric test was used since this study was conducted over time (Sun et al., 2014). Overall, only fourteen subjects were able to complete the full study over a three month period. Of the fourteen subjects, nine were male and five were female from ages 38-68. Types of cancer included breast, colorectal, renal cell carcinoma, hepatobiliary, ovarian, head and neck, lung, and prostate. Conclusively, the researchers were able to obtain enough information to determine that it is achievable that oncology patients can be concurrently treated in a clinical trial and with palliative care interventions (Sun et al.,