ArticleCancer medicine2026
Quality of Life in Adults With Metastatic Breast Cancer: The Impact of Between- and Within-Person Changes in Symptoms and Positive Affect.
Article in Cancer medicine, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
18 authors.
Funding
Abstract
introductionQuality of life (QoL) is important for patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC). We examined QoL in daily life among patients with MBC using ecological momentary assessment (EMA).
methodsFrom 2023 to 2024, patients with MBC were recruited from 5 Mid-Atlantic sites. Eligible patients were English- or Spanish-speaking, with a life expectancy > 6 months and access to a smartphone. Participants were invited to complete 12 EMAs over 4 weeks. EMAs assessed global QoL, symptom severity (depression, anxiety, pain, fatigue, slowed cognition, appetite loss, nausea, gastrointestinal distress, decreased libido), and positive affect (social connection, peace, joy). Multilevel mixed-effects models analyzed the relationships between QoL and between-person and within-person variations in symptom severity and positive affect. We also explored associations between QoL and years since MBC diagnosis at the time of study entry.
resultsParticipants (N = 108; Mean age 57.8 years) were a mean of 4.4 years post-diagnosis (range = 0.06-20.65 years). Between-person effects indicated QoL was worse among individuals reporting more nausea (β = -0.109, p = 0.035) and less joy (β = 0.593, p < 0.001). Within-person effects indicated individuals' QoL was lower at times when they had more depression (β = -0.177, p < 0.001), anxiety (β = -0.049, p = 0.023), fatigue (β = -0.052, p = 0.009), appetite loss (β = -0.053, p = 0.028), and decreased libido (β = -0.058, p = 0.036) and less social connectedness (β = 0.091, p = 0.001), joy (β = 0.055, p = 0.047), and peace (β = 0.107, p < 0.001) than their personal average. QoL was not associated with years since MBC diagnosis (β = 0.106, p = 0.956). Age (β = 0.482, p = 0.013) and being partnered (β = 13.356, p = 0.005) at baseline were positively associated with estimated QoL at MBC diagnosis. Changes in QoL per year since MBC diagnosis were positively associated with being employed at baseline (β = 2.453, p < 0.001) and negatively associated with HR positive disease (β = -1.334, p = 0.001).
conclusionsBoth within-person and between-person variations in symptom severity and positive affect are associated with QoL, highlighting the need for adaptive, targeted intervention strategies to optimize QoL for all patients.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.