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Purpose: Cancer-related cognitive impairment (CRCI) is a significant risk factor influencing the quality of life in lung cancer survivors. No absolute assessment tool has been confirmed to assess CRCI in lung cancer survivors. This review was undertaken to pool the overall prevalence of CRCI and to summarize the assessment tools in assessing CRCI among lung cancer survivors. Methods: PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CINAHL, and CNKI were searched to retrieve articles reported CRCI prevalence. Summary prevalence estimates were pooled using a random effects model, along with corresponding 95% prediction intervals (PIs). The Freeman-Tukey double arcsine transformation of proportions was incorporated in the analysis. Additionally, subgroup analysis, meta-regression, and leave-one-out analysis were performed. Results: A total of 12 studies, involving 1934 survivors, were included in the review. All of these studies were found to have a low risk of bias in terms of their methodological quality. Four studies (33.3%) utilized the International Cognition and Cancer Task Force (ICCTF) criteria to identify CRCI through neuropsychological tests. The pooled prevalence rate of CRCI was found to be 26% (95% PI, 16–37%), I2 = 95.97%. The region in which the studies were conducted was identified as a significant factor contributing to this heterogeneity (p = 0.013). No indication of small-study effects was found (Egger's test: p = 0.9191). Conclusion: This review provides an overview of CRCI prevalence and assessment tools in lung cancer survivors. The findings can serve as epidemiological evidence to enhance clinicians' and researchers' understanding of early detection and assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To investigate the effects of rehabilitation either before or after operation for lung cancer on postoperative pulmonary complications and the length of hospital stay. Data sources: MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, CINAHL Plus, SPORTDiscus, PsycInfo and Embase were searched from inception until June 2021. Review methods: Inclusion criteria were patients scheduled to undergo or had undergone operation for lung cancer, randomised controlled trials comparing rehabilitative interventions initiated before hospital discharge to usual care control. Two reviewers independently assessed eligibility, extracted data and risks of bias. Pooled odds ratios (ORs) or standardised mean differences (SMDs) with 95% Confidence Intervals (CI) were estimated using random-effects meta-analyses. Results: Twenty-three studies were included (12 preoperative, 10 postoperative and 1 perioperative), with 2068 participants. The pooled postoperative pulmonary complication risk and length of hospital stay were reduced after preoperative interventions (OR = 0.32; 95% CI = 0.22, 0.47; I 2 = 0.0% and SMD = −1.68 days, 95% CI = −2.23, −1.13; I 2 = 77.8%, respectively). Interventions delivered during the immediate postoperative period did not have any significant effects on either postoperative pulmonary complication or length of hospital stay (OR = 0.85; 95% CI = 0.56, 1.29; I 2 = 0.0% and SMD = −0.23 days, 95% CI = −1.08, 0.63; I 2 = 64.6%, respectively). Meta-regression showed an association between a higher number of supervised sessions and shorter hospital length of stay in preoperative studies (β = −0.17, 95% CI = −0.29, −0.05). Conclusion: Preoperative rehabilitation is effective in reducing postoperative pulmonary complications and length of hospital stay associated with lung cancer surgery. Short-term postoperative rehabilitation in inpatient settings is probably ineffective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive impairment is common in lung cancer patients and impacts their quality of life. Little is known about the etiology of cognitive impairment in lung cancer patients. However, the associated factors of cognitive impairment among lung cancer patients have not been systematically reviewed. This review aimed to summarize the factors related to cognitive impairment among lung cancer patients. PubMed, EMBASE, PsycINFO, CINAHL Plus, and Web of Science were searched to retrieve articles published from data inception until January 21, 2024, focusing on factors associated with cognitive impairment among lung cancer patients. Critical appraisal was undertaken by two reviewers independently using the Newcastle–Ottawa Scale. A total of 17 observational studies were included. The results showed that 20 factors are associated with cognitive impairment, including psychological factors (loneliness, fatigue, anxiety, depression, high symptom burden, and baseline cognitive impairment), lifestyle and functional factors (daily step counts, smoking, and activities of daily living or instrumental activities of daily living impairments), medical treatment factors (cranial irradiation, chemotherapy, lobar resection, postoperative delirium, and on medication), and neuroimmunological factors (have neuronal autoantibodies, altered Default Mode Network connectivity, dysregulation in glutamate and glutamate metabolism, mitochondrial dysfunction, blood-brain barrier leakage, and reduced T-lymphocytes). This is the first study to systematically review 20 factors associated with cognitive impairment among lung cancer patients, encompassing psychology, lifestyle and functional, medical treatment, and neuroimmunological factors. These findings can help clinicians identify at-risk patients and develop evidence-based interventions to prevent cognitive impairment among lung cancer patients. • We identified 20 factors and categorized them into four categories. • Anxiety is the most common issue among the 20 factors. • Early assessment by nurses to identify at-risk patients is necessary. • Targeted interventions to prevent cognitive impairment need to be developed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Advanced lung cancer patients suffer from deteriorated physical function, which negatively impacts physical and psychological health. As little is known about sleep and physical function in this population, this study aimed to examine the association between subjective and objective sleep parameters and physical function among them. 164 advanced lung cancer patients were included. Objective sleep was measured by actigraphy (measured on non-dominant wrist for 72 h), and subjective sleep quality was assessed by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Performance-based physical function was measured by Timed Up and Go Test (TUGT), 6-Minute Walk Test (6MWT), Sit-to-Stand Test, and One-leg Standing Test. Univariable and multivariable regression analyses were employed to examine the association between sleep and physical function. Total sleep time (TST) was significantly associated with the 6MWT (β = 0.259; 95% CI 0.120, 0.398; P < 0.001), TUGT (β = − 0.012; 95% CI = − 0.017, − 0.008; P < 0.001) and Sit-to-Stand Test (β = 0.027; 95% CI = 0.018, 0.035; P < 0.001) after adjustment for multiple covariates. PSQI global score was only significantly associated with TUGT (β = 0.140; 95% CI = 0.000, 0.280; P = 0.050) after adjustment for multiple covariates. Shorter sleep duration significantly predicted poorer physical performance in advanced lung cancer patients, and more attention is required for those with less than 4.3 h of sleep on average. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03482323. Registered 29 March 2018, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03482323; ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04119778. Registered 8 October 2019, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04119778. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: A majority of lung cancer patients are diagnosed at advanced stages. Although there is considerable evidence of the benefits of aerobic exercise and tai-chi for lung cancer patients, little is known about the comparative effectiveness of the 2 exercise modes in advanced lung cancer patients. Objectives: To explore the feasibility and preliminary effects of aerobic exercise and tai-chi interventions on survival and well-being among advanced lung cancer patients. Methods: In an assessor-blinded, exploratory randomized controlled trial, 30 advanced lung cancer patients were randomized to an aerobic exercise group, a tai-chi group (both attending 12-week, twice-weekly supervised sessions), or a self-management control group (receiving written exercise guidelines). The primary outcomes focused on feasibility including intervention completion, exercise adherence, and adverse events, while the secondary outcomes addressed preliminary effects and included 1-year survival, cancer symptoms (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Score, Brief Fatigue Inventory), quality of life (EORTC QLQ-C30, QLQ-LC13), physical performance (6-minute walk test, up-and-go, sit-to-stand, 1-leg standing), activity levels (actigraph), and circadian rhythms (salivary cortisol). Results: Intervention feasibility was established with a satisfactory completion rate at post-intervention for the aerobic exercise group (80%) and the tai-chi group (78%). The tai-chi group attained higher adherence than the exercise group in terms of attendance in supervised sessions (89% vs 75% of scheduled classes) and self-practice (225% vs 87% of the prescribed amount). Higher adherence to self-practice in the tai-chi group remained at the 6-month follow-up (81% vs 38% of the prescribed amount). No adverse event as a result of the intervention was reported. Effect-related outcomes did not show statistically significant changes in any group, except an improvement post-intervention in the up-and-go (−2.26, 95% CI: −4.04, −0.48) and sit-to-stand tests (4.52, 95% CI: 2.19, 6.85) in the aerobic exercise group. Conclusions: The findings support the feasibility of aerobic exercise and tai-chi interventions in advanced lung cancer patients. A future study with a larger sample from multiple sites is recommended to confirm the comparative effects of the 2 exercise interventions relative to the self-management group and to enhance the generalizability of the findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To explore the relationship of exercise timing (exercising close to bedtime, exercising in daylight and maintaining fixed exercise schedule) with sleep quality, fatigue and rest–activity rhythms among lung cancer patients in Taiwan. Methods: Results from 43 lung cancer patients who were assigned and adhered to the exercise intervention in a 12‐week randomised controlled trial were analysed. The MD Anderson Symptom Inventory and Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) were administered. Actigraphs were used to assess rest–activity rhythms (in‐bed less than out‐of‐bed dichotomy index, I < O) and objective sleep parameters, including total sleep time (TST) and sleep onset latency (SOL). Results: Patients who exercised >4 hr before bedtime had significant improvement in fatigue (p <.0001), sleep quality (p =.012 for PSQI; p =.037 for TST; p =.017 for SOL) and rest–activity rhythms (p =.048 for I < O). Furthermore, patients who exercised with daylight exposure had a significant improvement in fatigue (p =.037) and sleep quality (p =.039 for PSQI). Conclusions: Exercising >4 hr before bedtime with daylight exposure is associated with improvement in rest–activity rhythms, sleep quality and fatigue in lung cancer patients. The causal relationship requires further investigation with experimental design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) consists of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) and the Lung Cancer Subscale. The FACT-L is commonly used to measure quality of life in patients with lung cancer. This study evaluated the reliability and validity of the FACT-L in examining patients with lung cancer in Taiwan.Design: This was a methodology study.Setting: Patients with lung cancer at a regional hospital in Northern Taiwan.Participants: Patients who had received an early diagnosis of lung cancer between 2013 and 2015 were recruited as respondents.Intervention(s): None.Main Outcome Measure(s): To verify the reliability and validity of the Taiwanese version of the FACT-L.Results: A total of 104 patients who had received an initial diagnosis of lung cancer were recruited. The overall internal consistency of the FACT-L, as assessed using Cronbach's α, was 0.82. Among the patients, 64 had a test-retest reliability (r) of 0.45 (P < 0.001) at 6 weeks after treatment. Moreover, longitudinal research indicated that the FACT-L detected score differences before and after treatment in these patients (Cohen's d = -0.26). The Taiwanese version of the FACT-L considers 2-year survival as the gold standard, and the optimal combination of sensitivity and specificity was obtained when the receiver operating characteristic curve revealed cutoff points of 80 and 68 for the FACT-L and FACT-G, respectively.Conclusions: The Taiwanese version of the FACT-L can be widely applied to assess the quality of life of patients with lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disruption of the rest–activity rhythm in patients with lung cancer can accelerate cancer progression and affect survival. Rest–activity rhythm changes with age. Therefore, we investigated the effects of rest–activity rhythm and age on patients’ survival. A total of 84 patients with lung cancer were recruited, then separated into two groups; younger patients aged under 65 years or elderly patients aged 65 and over. The dichotomy index (I < O) was used to estimate the rest–activity rhythm measured through the actigraphy motion detector. Cox proportional hazards models were adopted to investigate the effects of different variables on the patients’ survival. After adjusting for confounding, the risk of earlier mortality in the younger patients with disrupted I < O were 2.52 (95%CI = 1.09–5.82) times higher than that in the younger patients with robust I < O (p = 0.03), the risk of earlier mortality in the elderly patients with disrupted I < O was 4.08 (95%CI = 1.91–8.68) times higher than that in the elderly patients with robust I < O (p < 0.001). Therefore, age and I < O influence the survival period of patients with lung cancer. Moreover, disrupted I < O has a substantial influence on elderly patients. In conclusion, aging and disrupted rest–activity rhythm negatively and jointly influenced the survival period of the patients with lung cancer and significantly increased their death risk. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Purpose After being diagnosed with lung cancer, patients often experience sleep disturbance, anxiety, depression, and fatigue. These symptoms may occur because of changes in neurotransmitter secretion caused by tumors. This study investigated the correlation of cortisol and melatonin rhythms with sleep quality, anxiety, depression, and fatigue levels in patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer. Method We conducted a case–control study and recruited 40 patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer and 40 healthy adults. Results The patient group had a lower salivary melatonin level and flatter slope ( p < 0.001 and p < 0.001), higher salivary cortisol level and steeper slope ( p < 0.001 and p < 0.001), higher sleep disturbance level ( p = 0.004), and higher depression level ( p < 0.001). The multivariate linear regression analysis indicated that the cortisol slope ( p = 0.005) and fatigue score ( p = 0.032) predicted the sleep quality score ( p = 0.011). Conclusion Overall, the patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer had poorer sleep quality, higher depression levels, lower salivary melatonin levels, higher cortisol levels, and flatter melatonin and cortisol slopes than did the controls. The fatigue level and cortisol slope significantly predicted sleep quality. Therefore, the assessment of cortisol and melatonin rhythms and levels could provide crucial information that may be beneficial for managing symptoms in patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the diurnal sleep–wake rhythm of patients with lung cancer have mostly examined patients cross-sectionally, whereas the effects of lung cancer treatment over time have rarely been considered. Through long-term longitudinal tracking of patients with lung cancer, this study examined changes in their sleep–wake rhythm, sleep quality, anxiety, depressive symptoms, fatigue and quality of life (QoL) at various treatment stages. In addition, factors affecting their QoL were explored. Hierarchical linear modeling was adopted to analyze a convenience sample of 82 patients with lung cancer. The changes in their sleep–wake rhythm, sleep, mood (anxiety, depressive symptoms and fatigue) and QoL were observed at five time points: prior to treatment and at weeks 6, 12, 24 and 48 after the start of the treatment. The effects of sex, age, cancer stage, treatment type, comorbidities and time were controlled to determine the predictors of patients’ QoL. The results showed that patients’ sleep–wake rhythms were poor before treatments. Compared with baseline, the sleep–wake rhythms of the patients significantly improved at week 48, and anxiety significantly improved at weeks 6, 12, 24 and 48. By contrast, their fatigue became exacerbated at weeks 8 and 48. Moreover, QoL improved significantly from week 6 until the end of the treatment period. QoL was negatively affected by poor sleep quality (β= −0.69,p= 0.00) and depressive symptoms (β= −2.59,p< 0.001) and positively affected by regular sleep–wake rhythms (β= 0.23,p= 0.001). Therefore, clinical health-care professionals should focus more attention to the fatigue levels of patients with lung cancer before, during and after treatment. Health-care professionals may also need to provide such patients with health education regarding sleep hygiene and with emotional support to assist them in maintaining regular sleep–wake rhythms in order to improve their QoL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Context: At the end of life, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and lung cancer (LC) patients exhibit similar symptoms; however, a large-scale study comparing end-of-life health care utilization between these two groups has not been conducted in East Asia.Objectives: To explore and compare end-of-life resource use during the last six months before death between COPD and LC patients.Methods: Using data from the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database, we conducted a nationwide retrospective cohort study in COPD (n = 8640) and LC (n = 3377) patients who died between 1997 and 2013.Results: The COPD decedents were more likely to be admitted to intensive care units (57.59% vs 29.82%), to have longer intensive care unit stays (17.59 vs 9.93 days), and to undergo intensive procedures than the LC decedents during their last six months; they were less likely to receive inpatient (3.32% vs 18.24%) or home-based palliative care (0.84% vs 8.17%) and supportive procedures than the LC decedents during their last six months. The average total medical cost during the last six months was approximately 18.42% higher for the COPD decedents than for the LC decedents.Conclusion: Higher intensive health care resource use, including intensive procedure use, at the end of life suggests a focus on prolonging life in COPD patients; it also indicates an unmet demand for palliative care in these patients. Avoiding potentially inappropriate care and improving end-of-life care quality by providing palliative care to COPD patients are necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The number one cause of cancer death in Taiwan is lung cancer. Of the few studies describing the experience of patients living with lung cancer, most use bivariate analyses to test associations between individual symptoms. Few have systematically investigated multiple symptoms. This prospective study was undertaken to explore the phenomenon of symptom distress, to investigate the presence of symptom clusters, and to examine the relationship of symptom clusters to symptom interference with daily life in Taiwanese lung cancer patients. A sample of 108 lung cancer patients was recruited using the Taiwanese version of the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory. Data were analyzed by hierarchical cluster analysis, factor analysis, Pearson correlation, t-test, and regression analysis. The top five most-severe symptoms were fatigue, sleep disturbance, lack of appetite, shortness of breath, and general distress. Factor analysis generated a two-factor solution (general and gastrointestinal symptoms) for symptom severity items. Consistent with the result from factor analysis, cluster analysis also indicated the same two cluster groups (general and gastrointestinal symptoms). Both clusters were significantly correlated with symptom interference items; however, the general symptom cluster presented higher correlation coefficients than did the gastrointestinal symptom cluster. These results provide an important basis for developing novel strategies to manage multiple symptoms in lung cancer patients and thereby improve their well-being. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The impact of cancer pain on the quality of life of lung cancer patients is obvious, but the relationship of cancer pain to uncertainty and level of hope in cancer patients is not clear and has been the subject of only a few studies. The purpose of this study is to look at the relationship of pain to uncertainty and hope in Taiwanese lung cancer patients. A cross-sectional and descriptive correlational design was used in this study. A convenience sample of lung cancer patients was recruited from chest medicine and oncology inpatient units at three teaching hospitals in the Taipei area of Taiwan. The research instruments included the Brief Pain Inventory-Chinese version (BPI-C), Mishel''s Uncertainty Illness Scale (MUIS), and the Herth Hope Index (HHI). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Pearson''s correlation, and multiple regression. A total of 164 subjects were recruited, including 79 patients with cancer pain and 85 patients without cancer pain. The major findings were: 1) there were significant differences in level of uncertainty and level of hope between patients with cancer pain and those without. Patients with cancer pain reported higher levels of uncertainty and lower levels of hope than did patients without cancer pain; 2) pain severity was not significantly related to level of uncertainty; however, pain interference with daily life was positively correlated to level of uncertainty; 3) both pain severity and pain interference were negatively correlated with level of hope; and 4) after controlling for pain severity and pain interference, uncertainty was a significant predictor of level of hope. Important implications for future studies are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]