ArticleBMC palliative care2025
A feasibility trial of advance care planning for patients with terminal cancer in primary hospitals.
Article in BMC palliative care, 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
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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.
- Perceived self-efficacy on advance care planning in Latin America: ACP-SEs Latam validation.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The impact of early integrated palliative care on symptom burden and quality of life in patients with advanced breast cancer.Frontiers in oncology · 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
Abstract
objectiveTo investigate the effects of advance care planning (ACP) on patients with terminal cancer in primary hospitals.
methodsConvenience sampling was used to select 60 patients with terminal cancer and their primary caregivers from primary hospitals. The control group received routine care, while the intervention group received routine care plus an ACP-based care intervention. Patients and their primary caregivers' anxiety and depression levels were assessed before and after the intervention. We compared several outcomes between the ACP intervention and routine care control group, including quality of life scores (EORTC QLQ-C30), frequency of intensive care unit (ICU) admissions, length of hospital stay within 30 days before death, and direct medical costs.
resultsTwo weeks post-intervention, caregivers' anxiety and depression were significantly lower in the ACP group than in the control group (P < 0.05). The ACP group also showed significant improvements in quality of life, including role functioning, pain, nausea/vomiting, dyspnea, constipation, diarrhea. At 1 month post-intervention, both patients and caregivers had significantly reduced anxiety/depression in the ACP group (P < 0.05). All quality-of-life dimensions significantly improved with ACP (P < 0.05). There were also significant reductions in ICU admission frequency, length of hospital stay within 30 days before death, and direct medical costs in the ACP group relative to the control group (P < 0.05).
conclusionACP intervention can be successfully implemented for patients with terminal cancer in primary hospitals when clinicians receive structured training and standardized documentation and family engagement protocols are followed. Furthermore, the findings suggest that ACP may help reduce anxiety and depression in patients and their caregivers, improve patients' quality of life, and has the potential to decrease ICU admissions, hospital stay length, and direct medical costs.
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Registered trials
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