216
Views
11
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
ARTICLES

Can Observational Studies Provide a Realistic Alternative to Randomized Controlled Trials in Palliative Care?

, , &
Pages 106-113 | Published online: 13 Aug 2009

REFERENCES

  • Rinck G C, van den Bos G A, Kleijnen J, et al. Methodologic issues in effectiveness research on palliative cancer care: a systematic review. J Clin Oncol 1997; 15: 1697–1707
  • Grande G E, Todd C J. Why are trials in palliative care so difficult?. Palliat Med 2000; 14: 69–74
  • Mazzocato C, Sweeney C, Bruera E. Clinical research in palliative care: choice of trial design. Palliat Med 2001; 15: 261–4
  • Mularski R A, Rosenfeld K, Joel Coons S, et al. Measuring outcomes in randomized prospective trials in palliative care. J Pain Symptom Manage 2007; 34: S7–S19
  • Wee B, Hadley G, Derry S. How useful are systematic reviews in palliative care? Survey of 25 Cochrane systematic reviews. BMC Palliat Care 2008; 7: 13
  • Benson K, Hartz A J. A comparison of observational studies and randomised controlled trials. New Engl J Med 2000; 342: 1878–1886
  • Moore R A, McQuay H J. Observational studies. Bandolier's Little Book of Making Sense of the Medical Evidence, A Moore, H J McQuay. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2006
  • Higginson I J. Evidence based palliative care. There is some evidence-and there needs to be more. BMJ 1999; 319: 462–463
  • Regnard C, Hockley J. A Guide to Symptom Relief in Palliative Care, 5th ed. Radcliffe Medical Press, Oxford 2004
  • Ruppen W, Derry S, McQuay H, Moore R A. Incidence of epidural hematoma, infection, and neurologic injury in obstetric patients with epidural analgesia/anesthesia. Anesthesiology 2006; 105: 394–399
  • Lemeshow A R, Blum R E, Berlin J A, Stoto M A, Colditz G A. Searching one or two databases was insufficient for meta-analysis of observational studies. J Clin Epidemiol 2005; 58: 867–873
  • Christakis N A, Escarce J J. Survival of Medicare patients after enrollment in hospice programs. N Engl J Med 1996; 335: 172–178
  • Eve A, Higginson I J. Minimum dataset activity for hospice and hospital palliative care services in the UK 1997/98. Palliat Med 2000; 14: 395–404
  • Fernández González M J, Roces Camino J R, Valdés Gómez C, Vallina Blanco P. Equipo de soporte de atención domiciliaria. Resumen de la actividad realizada en los dieciséis primeros meses de funcionamiento del ESAD. Área Sanitaria V-Gijón (1 de octubre, 2000 a 31 de enero, 2002). [Analysis of the activity of a Home Care Support Team.]. Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos 2003; 10: 72–7, Also available at http://www.secpal.com/medicina_paliativa/index.php?acc=verart&idart=140(accessed January 6, 2009)
  • Higginson I J, Wilkinson S. Marie Curie nurses: enabling patients with cancer to die at home. Br J Community Nurs 2002; 7: 240–344
  • Potter J, Hami F, Bryan T, Quigley C. Symptoms in 400 patients referred to palliative care services: prevalence and patterns. Palliat Med 2003; 17: 310–314
  • Dafermou A, Colamussi P, Giganti M, Cittanti C, Bestagno M. Piffanelli. A multicentre observational study of radionuclide therapy in patients with painful bone metastases of prostate cancer. Eur J Nucl Med 2001; 28: 788–798
  • Crawford J, Demetri G D, Gabrilove J L, Blasi M V, Sarokhan B J, Glaspy J. Clinical benefits of epoetin alfa therapy in patients with lung cancer. Clin Lung Cancer 2002; 3: 180–190
  • Higginson I J, Hearn J, Myers K, Naysmith A. Palliative day care: what do services do? Palliative Day Care Project Group. Palliat Med 2000; 14: 277–286
  • Anderson H, Ward C, Eardley A, et al. The concerns of patients under palliative care and a heart failure clinic are not being met. Palliat Med 2001; 15: 279–286
  • Bayés R, Limonero J T, Barreto P, Comas M D. Protocolo de una investigación multicéntrica sobre aspectos emocionales en enfermos en situación terminal. [A research system for emotional needs of terminal patients.]. Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos 2001; 8: 71–79, Also available at http://www.secpal.com/medicina_paliativa/index.php?acc=verart&idart=39(accessed January 6, 2008)
  • Logie D E, Harding R. An evaluation of a morphine public health programme for cancer and AIDS pain relief in Sub-Saharan Africa. BMC Public Health 2005; 5: 82
  • London M R, McSkimming S, Drew N, Quinn C, Carney B. Evaluation of a comprehensive, Adaptable, Life- Affirming, Longitudinal (CALL) palliative care project. J Palliat Med 2005; 8: 1214–1225
  • Addington-Hall J M, Karlsen S. A national survey of health professionals and volunteers working in voluntary hospice services in the UK. I. Attitudes to current issues affecting hospices and palliative care. Palliat Med 2005; 19: 40–48
  • Addington-Hall J M, Karlsen S. A national survey of health professionals and volunteers working in voluntary hospices in the UK. II. Staff and volunteers' experiences of working in hospices. Palliat Med 2005; 19: 49–57
  • Higginson I J, Astin P, Dolan S. Where do cancer patients die? Ten-year trends in the place of death of cancer patients in England. Palliat Med 1998; 12: 353–363
  • Higginson I J, Jarman B, Astin P, Dolan S. Do social factors affect where patients die: an analysis of 10 years of cancer deaths in England. J Public Health Med 1999; 21: 22–28
  • Iwashyna T J, Zhang J X, Christakis N A. Disease-specific patterns of hospice and related healthcare use in an incidence cohort of seriously ill elderly patients. J Palliat Med 2002; 5: 531–538
  • Iwashyna T J, Chang V W, Zhang J X, Christakis N A. The lack of effect of market structure on hospice use. Health Serv Res 2002; 37: 1531–1551
  • Lamont E B, Christakis N A. Prognostic disclosure to patients with cancer near the end of life. Ann Intern Med 2001; 134: 1096–1105
  • Lamont E B, Christakis N A. Physician factors in the timing of cancer patient referral to hospice palliative care. Cancer 2002; 94: 2733–2737
  • Balboni T A, Vanderwerker L C, Block S D, et al. Religiousness and spiritual support among advanced cancer patients and associations with end-of-life treatment preferences and quality of life. J Clin Oncol 2007; 25: 555–560
  • Chiu T Y, Hu W Y, Lue B H, Cheng S Y, Chen C Y. Sedation for refractory symptoms of terminal cancer patients in Taiwan. J Pain Symptom Manage 2001; 21: 467–472
  • Hanks G W, Trueman T, Twycross R G. Corticosteroids in terminal cancer—a prospective analysis of current practice. Postgrad Med J 1983; 59: 702–706
  • Higginson I J, Hearn J. A multicenter evaluation of cancer pain control by palliative care teams. J Pain Symptom Manage 1997; 14: 29–35
  • Meuser T, Pietruck C, Radbruch L, Stute P, Lehmann K A, Grond S. Symptoms during cancer pain treatment following WHO-guidelines: a longitudinal follow-up study of symptom prevalence, severity and etiology. Pain 2001; 93: 247–257
  • Miccinesi G, Paci E, Toscani F, et al. [Quality of life at the end of life. Analysis of the quality of life of oncologic patients treated with palliative care. Results of a multicenter observational study (staging).] Epidemiol Prev 1999; 23: 333–345
  • Monti M, Castellani L, Berlusconi A, Cunietti E. Use of red blood cell transfusions in terminally ill cancer patients admitted to a palliative care unit. J Pain Symptom Manage 1996; 12: 18–22
  • Morita T, Tsunoda J, Inoue S, Chihara S. Effects of high dose opioids and sedatives on survival in terminally ill cancer patients. J Pain Symptom Manage 2001; 21: 282–289
  • Sykes N P. The relationship between opioid use and laxative use in terminally ill cancer patients. Palliat Med 1998; 12: 375–382
  • Tuca Rodríguez A, Nabal Vicuña M, Porta Sales J, Ylla-Catalá Boré E. Estudio multicéntrico catalano-balear sobre la sedación terminal en Cuidados Paliativos. [Multi-center catalano-balear study about the terminal sedation in Palliative Care.]. Sociedad Española de Cuidados Paliativos 1999; 6: 153–158, Also available at http://www.secpal.com/medicina_paliativa/index.php?acc=verart&idart=185(accessed January 6, 2008)
  • Apolone G, Mangano S, Compagnoni A, et al. Cancer Pain Outcome Research Study Group (CPOR SG): a multidisciplinary project to improve the quality of cancer pain management in Italy: background, methods, and preliminary results. J Ambul Care Manage 2006; 29: 332–341
  • Concato J, Shah N, Horwitz R I. Randomized, controlled trials, observational studies, and the hierarchy of research designs. New Engl J Med 2000; 342: 1887–1892
  • Geborek P, Crnkic M, Petersson I F, Saxne T. South Swedish Arthritis Treatment Group: Etanercept, infliximab, and leflunomide in established rheumatoid arthritis: clinical experience using a structured follow up programme in southern Sweden. Ann Rheum Dis 2002; 61: 793–798
  • Jobanputra P, Barton P, Bryan S, Burls A. The effectiveness of infliximab and etanercept for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis: a systematic review and economic evaluation. Health Technol Assess 2002; 6: 1–110
  • Flather M D, Farkouh M E, Pogue J M, Yusuf S. Strengths and limitations of meta-analysis: larger studies may be more reliable. Control Clin Trials 1997; 18: 568–579
  • Moore R A, Gavaghan D, Tramèr M R, Collins S L, McQuay H J. Size is everything—large amounts of information are needed to overcome random effects in estimating direction and magnitude of treatment effects. Pain 1998; 78: 209–16
  • Shuster J J. Fixing the number of events in large comparative trials with low event rates: a binomial approach. Control Clin Trials 1993; 14: 198–208

Reprints and Corporate Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

To request a reprint or corporate permissions for this article, please click on the relevant link below:

Academic Permissions

Please note: Selecting permissions does not provide access to the full text of the article, please see our help page How do I view content?

Obtain permissions instantly via Rightslink by clicking on the button below:

If you are unable to obtain permissions via Rightslink, please complete and submit this Permissions form. For more information, please visit our Permissions help page.