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Introduction
Studies have revealed the differences between the sexes in numerous diseases and cancer is one of such diseases, with sex-specific types of cancer and the differences in prevalence of cancer types between men and women.1 From a viewpoint of palliative and supportive care, it is also important to know how sex differences may affect symptoms and quality of life in advanced cancer patients. To the best of our knowledge, however, no study to date has compared two sex groups in terms of end-of-life symptoms and experiences among patients with cancer. The aim of this study was to explore the impact of sex differences on symptoms and experiences in terminally ill cancer patients.
Methods
This preliminary study is a secondary analysis of data from a multicentre observational cohort study, the East-Asian collaborative cross-cultural Study to Elucidate the Dying process.2 Participants were terminally ill cancer patients admitted to 23 inpatient hospices/palliative care units (PCUs) throughout Japan from January 2017 through June 2018. Eligible patients were those with a diagnosis of locally advanced or metastatic cancer who were newly admitted to PCUs, at least 18 years old, and died in the PCU. Written consent was waived according to the ethical guidelines of the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, because all interventions were performed as part of routine clinical practice and posed no additional patient burden. The primary responsible physician obtained data from daily clinical practice. …
Footnotes
Collaborators EASED Investigators.
Contributors Conceptualisation: YH, MM, HI, TM. Project administration: MM. Recruitment and data collection: KA, TI, JN, KK, TK. Financial support: MM. Data analysis: YH. Manuscript writing: all authors.
Funding This study was funded by the Japan Hospice Palliative Care Foundation.
Competing interests None declared.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.
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