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. 2011 Jan;17(1):57-66.
doi: 10.4103/0973-1075.78451.

Reporting characteristics of cancer pain: a systematic review and quantitative analysis of research publications in palliative care journals

Senthil P Kumar  1
Affiliations

Reporting characteristics of cancer pain: a systematic review and quantitative analysis of research publications in palliative care journals

Senthil P Kumar. Indian J Palliat Care. 2011 Jan.

Abstract

Objective: A common disorder requiring symptom palliation in palliative and end-of-life care is cancer. Cancer pain is recognized as a global health burden. This paper sought to systematically examine the extent to which there is an adequate scientific research base on cancer pain and its reporting characteristics in the palliative care journal literature.

Materials and methods: Search conducted in MEDLINE and CINAHL sought to locate all studies published in 19 palliative/ hospice/ supportive/ end-of-life care journals from 2009 to 2010. The journals included were: American Journal of Hospice and Palliative Care, BMC Palliative Care, Current Opinion in Supportive and Palliative Care, End of Life Care Journal, European Journal of Palliative Care, Hospice Management Advisor, Indian Journal of Palliative Care, International Journal of Palliative Nursing, Internet Journal of Pain Symptom Control and Palliative Care, Journal of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacotherapy, Journal of Palliative Care, Journal of Palliative Medicine, Journal of Social Work in End-of-life and Palliative Care, Journal of Supportive Oncology, Palliative Medicine, Palliative and Supportive Care, and Supportive Care in Cancer. Journal contents were searched to identify studies that included cancer pain in abstract.

Results: During the years 2009 and 2010, of the selected 1,569 articles published in the journals reviewed, only 5.86% (92 articles) were on cancer pain.

Conclusion: While researchers in the field of palliative care have studied cancer pain, the total percentage for studies is still a low 5.86%. To move the field of palliative care forward so that appropriate guidelines for cancer pain management can be developed, it is critical that more research be reported upon which to base cancer pain therapy in an evidence-based palliative care model.

Keywords: Cancer pain; Palliative care research; Reporting characteristics.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of Interest: None declared

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Schematic flowchart for data synthesis used in this study
Figure 2
Figure 2
Overall prevalence of reporting cancer pain (corrected reporting rate) in all the palliative care journals
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of reporting rates of articles ‘mainly’ on cancer pain-corrected reporting rate between palliative care journals
Figure 4
Figure 4
Comparison of corrected reporting rates between MEDLINE- and CINAHL-indexed journals
Figure 5
Figure 5
Comparison of corrected reporting rates between multidisciplinary, medical and nursing palliative care journals
Figure 6
Figure 6
Comparison of corrected reporting rates between general and cancer-specific palliative care journals
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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