Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33196866›Full record

ArticleSupportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer2021

Quantitative-qualitative analyses of patient-reported pain response after palliative radiation therapy.

Diana D Shi, Tracy A Balboni, Monica S Krishnan, Alexander Spektor, Mai Anh Huynh, Ron Y Shiloh, Sonia Skamene, Cierra Zaslowe-Dude, Lauren M Hertan

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Article in Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
3citing papers in PubMed
0.8field-weighted citation impact, top 25% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

3 citing papers in PubMed, 4 citations in OpenAlex.

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4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.

Diana D ShiDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA. dshi1@partners.org.ORCID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6626-5277
Tracy A BalboniDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Monica S KrishnanDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Alexander SpektorDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Mai Anh HuynhDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Ron Y ShilohDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Sonia SkameneDepartment of Radiation Oncology, McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
Cierra Zaslowe-DudeDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Brigham and Women's Hospital/Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA.
Lauren M HertanDepartment of Radiation Oncology, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA, USA.
Brigham and Women's Hospital · USBeth Israel Deaconess Medical Center · USMcGill University Health Centre · CA

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

purposeWhile the 0-10 pain scale is often used to assess treatment response, it may not accurately reflect change in pain over time. The purpose of this study is to correlate pain improvement using the 0-10 pain scale to patients' perceived improvement in pain following palliative radiation therapy (RT), and to qualitatively characterize themes of pain assessment.

methodsPatients age ≥ 20 receiving RT for spinal metastases were enrolled. Patients rated their pain (0-10) at the treatment site at RT start, and 1 and 4 weeks post-RT completion. At 1 and 4 weeks post-RT, patients reported their perceived percent improvement in pain (pPIP) (0-100%), which was compared to calculated percent improvement in pain (cPIP) based on the 0-10 pain scores. At 4 weeks post-RT, 20 randomly selected patients participated in a qualitative pain assessment.

resultsSixty-four patients treated at 1-2 sites were analyzed. At 1 week post-RT completion, 53.7% (36/67) reported pPIP within 10 percentage points of cPIP, 32.8% (22/67) reported pPIP > 10 percentage points higher than cPIP, and 13.4% (9/67) reported pPIP > 10 percentage points lower than cPIP. Similar degrees of discordance were seen at 4 weeks post-RT. Qualitative analysis revealed five themes: pain quality (n = 19), activities (n = 9), function (n = 7), medication use (n = 2), and radiation side effects (n = 1).

conclusionsAbout half of patients reported a pPIP substantially disparate from their cPIP, and the change in pain measured by the 0-10 scale tended to underestimate the degree of perceived pain improvement. Multiple themes were identified in qualitative analysis of pain response.

Indexed as

Patient Reported Outcome MeasuresAdultAgedAged, 80 and overFemaleHumansMaleMiddle AgedNeoplasmsPainPain MeasurementPalliative CareProspective StudiesQualitative ResearchPain assessmentPalliative radiation therapySpine metastases

Identifiers

PMID33196866
OpenAlexW3099247648

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.