ReviewHealthcare (Basel, Switzerland)2025
Defining and Assessing Distress in Oncology Patients: A Systematic Review of the Literature.
Review in Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland), 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.
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.
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.
Who cites it
2 citing papers in PubMed.
- Changes in Patient-Reported Symptoms Across Chemotherapy Cycles: A Prospective Cohort Study in an Outpatient Chemotherapy Clinic.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2026Article
- Symptom Burden and Treatment Satisfaction Among Patients with Cancer in a Day Care Unit.Medicina (Kaunas, Lithuania) · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Psychological distress is an extremely relevant phenomenon in cancer patients due to its high prevalence, especially when cancer diagnoses are increasingly frequent. It is estimated that only one-third of patients with clinically significant levels of distress are referred to mental health services. To reinforce this point, most health centers lack the resources for distress screening. BACKGROUND/
objectivesThis study aims to systematically gather and critique information relevant to the operationalization of distress, as well as the instruments used to assess it.
methodsThe data included in this systematic review were published after 2014 and collected through the meta-database EBSCO and the following databases: PsycArticles, PubMED, and SCOPUS.
resultsA total of 1028 references were imported, and 54 duplicate articles were excluded. Of the 974 references, 934 were excluded because they had titles, keywords, or abstracts that were incompatible with the research objectives. Finally, of the 40 articles obtained, 3 were excluded due to the inclusion of cancer survivors, 1 for including a non-oncological sample, and 9 for not expressing a focus on distress, resulting in a total of 27 articles included in this systematic review.
conclusionsThe field of psycho-oncology needs to improve the understanding and assessment of distress in cancer patients. The lack of a holistic and homogeneous vision, as well as the use of reductionist instruments are common problems. A more complete understanding of distress, especially its effective evaluation, and better communication with other health professionals and their patients concerning this health issue are needed.
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Registered trials
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.