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Support Care Cancer (2015) 23:103–110 DOI 10.1007/s00520-014-2323-z ORIGINAL ARTICLE The importance of good death components among cancer patients, the general population, oncologists, and oncology nurses in Japan: patients prefer “fighting against cancer” Mitsunori Miyashita & Sachiko Kawakami & Daiki Kato & Hideomi Yamashita & Hiroshi Igaki & Kimiko Nakano & Yujiro Kuroda & Keiichi Nakagawa Received: 5 March 2014 / Accepted: 16 June 2014 / Published online: 5 July 2014 # Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014 Abstract Background The objectives of this study were to compare the importance of components of a good death among cancer patients, the general population, oncologists, and oncology nurses, and explore which patients preferred “fighting against cancer.” Methods We conducted a cross-sectional anonymous selfreported survey of cancer patients who visited a radiation oncology outpatient clinic, oncologists, and oncology nurses at the Tokyo University Hospital and a random sample of the general population in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The outcomes were 18 previously developed components of a good death in Japanese cancer care consisting of 57 attributes. Results Three hundred ten patients, 353 subjects from the general population, 109 oncologists, and 366 oncology nurses participated. The desire to “fight against cancer” was highly significantly different between patients and oncologists (effect size [ES]=−1.40; P=0.001) and patients and oncology nurses (ES=−1.12; P=0.001). “Physical and cognitive control” was, similarly, highly significantly different between patients and oncologists (ES=−1.30; P=0.001) and patients and oncology nurses (ES= −1.06; P =0.001). Patients who emphasized “maintaining hope and pleasure” (P=0.0001), “unawareness of death” (P=0.0001), and “good relationship with family” (P=0.004) favored “fighting against cancer.” The patients, however, who emphasized “physical and psychological Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00520-014-2323-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. M. Miyashita : K. Nakano Department of Adult Nursing/Palliative Care Nursing, School of Health Sciences and Nursing Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan K. Nakano e-mail: [email protected] M. Miyashita (*) Division of Palliative Nursing, Health Sciences, Tohoku University Graduate School of Medicine, Miyagi, 2-1 Seiryo-machi, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8575, Japan e-mail: [email protected] S. Kawakami Cancer Net Japan, NPO, Tokyo, Japan e-mail: [email protected] S. Kawakami : D. Kato : H. Yamashita : H. Igaki : K. Nakagawa Departments of Radiology, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan D. Kato e-mail: [email protected] H. Yamashita e-mail: [email protected] H. Igaki e-mail: [email protected] K. Nakagawa e-mail: [email protected] Y. Kuroda : K. Nakagawa Department of Palliative Medicine, The University of Tokyo Hospital, Tokyo, Japan Y. Kuroda e-mail: [email protected] 104 comfort” did not significantly favor “fighting against cancer” (P=0.004). Conclusion The importance of good death components differed between groups. Medical professionals should be aware of the diversity of values surrounding death and assess the patient’s values and discuss them to support his or her quality of life. In addition, the development of care and a medical/ social system to maintain hope and pleasure after failure of anticancer treatment is necessary. Support Care Cancer (2015) 23:103–110 optimizing end-of-life cancer care strategies to balance aggressive treatment and palliative care. Therefore, the objectives of this study were, first, a comparison of the importance of components of a good death among cancer patients, the general population, oncologists and oncology nurses, and, second, an exploration of which patients preferred “fighting against cancer.” Methods Keywords Palliative care . Neoplasms . Attitude . Good death . Life prolongation treatment Introduction Having a “good death” is one of the most important goals of palliative care. Around the onset of the 21st century, many surveys conceptualizing a good death were conducted worldwide among patients, physicians, and nurses [4, 20, 21, 23, 26, 28]. There were, however, few studies that investigated a good death among different populations in the same questionnaire. Steinhauser surveyed the relative importance of a good death among patients, bereaved family members, physicians and other healthcare providers in the United States and reported that, in contrast to physicians, patients strongly endorsed the importance of being mentally aware, not being a burden to others, being able to help others, having funeral arrangements planned, and spirituality [25]. The concept of a good death might differ among different cultures. Therefore, in Japan, we conducted a qualitative and quantitative survey to conceptualize a good death in Japanese cancer care [8, 15]. In these studies, we identified 18 components that contribute to a good death for Japanese people. The subjects of this quantitative study, however, were limited to the general population and bereaved family members of cancer patients; we did not survey cancer patients or medical practitioners. One aspect of a good death in Japan that was not identified in Western studies was “fighting against cancer.” This component consisted of three attributes: “fighting against the disease until one’s last moment,” “believing that one used all available treatments,” and “living as long as possible.”[15] Aggressive treatment has frequently been discussed as a poor-quality indicator of palliative care [2, 3]. Many patients are willing to undergo chemotherapy that has small benefit and causes major toxicity [14]. However, aggressive treatment near the end of life might result in poor quality of life [32, 33], whereas providing palliative care at the end of life might result in a survival benefit [5, 27]. In Japan, however, there are few studies about aggressive care, including chemotherapy, at the end of life [6]. To identify characteristics of patients who prefer aggressive care at the end of life would be useful for Participants and procedure We recruited consecutive cancer patients at a radiation oncology outpatient clinic at the University of Tokyo Hospital from February to April 2008. The inclusion criteria were as follows: (1) patient had cancer; (2) patient was aged 20 years or more; (3) attending physician understood patient did not have any visual, physical, or cognitive impairment; and (4) attending physician understood patient was not too ill to complete questionnaire. The attending physician asked patients to participate in the study, and patient consent was obtained. The participant completed the questionnaire at home and returned it to the front desk at the outpatient clinic (not to their attending physician) on their next visit. As for the general population, we selected 1,000 potential participants aged 40 to 79 years in the Tokyo metropolitan area using a stratified two-stage random sampling method. We mailed questionnaires to potential participants in June 2008 and sent a reminder postcard 2 weeks later. We defined oncologists and oncology nurses as physicians and nurses who treat or care for cancer patients routinely on a full-time basis. We asked oncologists and oncology nurses working at the University of Tokyo Hospital to participate in the study. The oncologists and oncology nurses who consented completed and returned the questionnaires to the radiation oncology outpatient clinic by mail. The ethical and scientific validity of this study was approved by the institutional review boards of the University of Tokyo. This study was conducted in accordance with the ethical guidelines for epidemiological research issued by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan. Measurements Components of a good death We asked participants about the relative importance of components of a good death. The components of a good death consisted of 57 attributes generated by qualitative and quantitative study [8, 15]. These 57 attributes were classified into two categories: 10 core components that most Japanese Support Care Cancer (2015) 23:103–110 consistently rated as important and eight optional components that were not as consistently rated as important by individuals. The 10 core components included “physical and psychological comfort,” “dying in a preferred place,” “good relationship with medical staff,” “maintaining hope and pleasure,” “not being a burden to others,” “good relationship with family,” “physical and cognitive control,” “environmental comfort,” “being respected as an individual,” and “life completion.” The eight optional components included “natural death,” “preparation for death,” “role accomplishment and contributing to others,” “unawareness of death,” “fighting against cancer,” “pride and beauty (i.e., not having a change in one’s appearance, receiving pity from others, or exposing one’s physical and mental weakness to family),” “control over the future,” and “religious and spiritual comfort.” The factor validity and internal consistency were examined by a previous quantitative study [8, 15]. We list all the attributes in a Supplementary Appendix. We asked participants to rate the relative importance of each component for a good death on a 7-point Likert scale (1, absolutely unnecessary; 2, unnecessary; 3, somewhat unnecessary; 4, unsure; 5, somewhat necessary; 6, necessary; 7, absolutely necessary). Participant characteristics We collected patient’s age, gender, primary cancer site, metastasis, treatment status (pretreatment, curative treatment, palliative treatment, and follow-up), time since diagnosis and Karnofsky performance status from medical databases or attending physicians for patients, and demographic factors from questionnaires for the general population. We asked age, sex, clinical experience, and experience treating cancer patients and dying cancer patients in the questionnaire for oncology nurses. Analysis First, we calculated the mean score of components of a good death among groups (cancer patients, general population, oncologists, and oncology nurses). We calculated the effect sizes (Cohen’s d) and conducted Wilcoxon rank sum tests comparing cancer patients with other groups. Second, we calculated the sum of percentages answering “somewhat necessary,” “necessary,” and “absolutely necessary” for each attribute of the components of a good death by groups and calculated differences from patients to each of the other groups. Finally, for cancer patients, we conducted multiple regression analysis to explore variables associated with the patients who wished to “fight against cancer.” We set the mean score of three attributes for “fighting against cancer” as dependent variables and the other mean score of good death components without “fighting against cancer” and all demographics and medical variables as explanatory variables. We 105 used a backward variable selection procedure (threshold level=0.05). We set 0.05 as the significance level and conducted two-sided tests for all analyses. All analyses were performed using the statistical package SAS 9.1 (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Results We recruited 450 cancer patients and 310 participated in the study (response rate, 69 %). For the sample from the general population, we mailed 1,000 questionnaires; 20 could not be delivered because of incorrect addresses, and 353 questionnaires were filled out and returned (response rate, 36 %). We asked 155 oncologists and 470 oncology nurses to take part in the study, and 109 oncologists (70 %) and 366 nurses (78 %) agreed to participate. Participant characteristics Participant characteristics are shown in Table 1. The distribution of age was very similar in the patient and general samples. The oncologists were older than the oncology nurses. As for the patients, the mean time from diagnosis was 29.3 ± 36.6 months and mean Karnofsky performance status was 90.3± 10.5. The primary cancer site was head and neck (26 %), uterus (16 %), and lung (11 %), and 19 % of patients had metastasis. As for treatment status, 79 % had received curative radiotherapy. As for medical professionals, 73 % of the oncologists and 77 % of the oncology nurses had treated 50 or more cancer patients and 76 % of the oncologists and 52 % of the oncology nurses had treated 10 or more terminal cancer patients. Comparison of importance of good death components among groups The means and standard distributions of the 18 good death components and differences between patients and other groups are shown in Table 2. The attribute “fighting against cancer” was highly significantly different for oncologists (effect size [ES]=−1.40; P=0.001) and oncology nurses compared to patients (ES=−1.12; P=0.001). “Physical and cognitive control” was, similarly, highly significantly different for oncologists (ES=−1.30; P=0.001) and oncology nurses compared to patients (ES=−1.06; P=0.001). “Good relationship with medical staff” and “unawareness of death” were highly significantly different for oncologists compared to patients ( E S = −1 . 0 5; P = 0 . 00 1 a n d E S = −1 . 0 2; P = 0 . 00 1 , respectively). 106 Support Care Cancer (2015) 23:103–110 Table 1 Participant characteristics Patient General population Oncologist Oncology nurse N=310 N=353 N=109 N=366 n Age, years 20–29 30–39 40–49 50–59 60–69 70–79 80– Gender Male Time since diagnosis, months Karnofsky performance status Primary cancer site Head and neck Uterus Lung % 6 17 33 63 87 77 24 % n % n % 2 6 11 21 28 25 8 34 67 61 56 75 53 0 10 19 18 16 22 15 0 11 54 33 11 0 0 0 10 50 30 10 0 0 0 237 73 26 22 1 0 0 66 20 7 6 0 0 0 180 58 29.3±36.6 90.3±10.5 133 – – 39 – – 96 – – 88 – – 15 – – 4 – – 26 16 11 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 10 10 7 5 17 19 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 4 12 6 78 – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – 7 25 56 21 6 23 51 19 169 104 51 36 47 29 14 10 – – – 11 11 4 1 – – – – – – 16 15 75 22 – – – – 14 19 44 13 18 42 61 58 145 18 17 42 – – – – – – – – – – 25 48 19 10 5 23 45 32 9 5 170 129 27 15 10 48 37 8 4 3 79 50 34 Leukemia/lymphoma 30 Esophagus/stomach 30 Colon/rectum 21 Breast 14 Others 51 Metastasis 54 Treatment status Pretreatment 11 Curative 34 Palliative 19 Follow-up 230 Clinical experience −2 – 3–9 – 10–19 – 20– – Experience of treatment of cancer patient −9 – 10–49 50–99 n – – 100–199 – – 200– – – Experience of treatment of dying cancer patients 0–9 – – 10–49 – – 50–99 – – 100–199 – – 200– – – Support Care Cancer (2015) 23:103–110 107 Table 2 Comparison of importance of good death components among groups Components of good death Descriptive statistics Patient General populatio Difference from patients Onncologist Oncology nurse General population Oncologist Oncology nurse Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD Mean SD ES P value ES P value ES P value Physical and psychological comfort Dying in a favorite place Good relationship with medical staff Maintaining hope and pleasure Not being a burden to others Good relationship with family Physical and cognitive control Environmental comfort Being respected as an individual Life completion Natural death Preparation for death Role accomplishment and contributing to others Unawareness of death Fighting against cancer Pride and beauty 6.1 6.1 6.1 6.0 5.9 5.9 6.0 5.6 5.7 5.6 5.6 5.3 5.5 4.8 5.7 5.1 0.7 0.8 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.8 0.6 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.9 0.9 1.1 1.0 1.0 0.000 0.003 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.25 0.001 0.001 0.82 0.56 0.00 0.68 0.004 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.002 0.001 0.001 0.003 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.001 0.02 0.001 0.001 Control over the future Religious and spiritual comfort 5.1 4.2 1.1 5.2 1.4 3.7 6.2 6.0 5.9 5.7 5.8 5.8 5.7 5.4 5.8 5.6 5.5 5.4 5.3 4.7 4.9 4.8 0.7 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.8 0.9 0.8 1.0 0.9 1.0 1.1 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.0 6.4 5.8 5.3 5.3 5.3 5.9 4.7 5.1 5.8 5.6 4.8 5.4 5.2 3.6 3.8 4.1 0.5 0.9 0.8 1.1 1.0 0.9 1.1 1.1 0.7 1.0 1.2 0.8 1.1 1.1 1.4 1.1 6.6 6.3 5.9 5.4 5.0 6.1 5.0 5.3 6.1 5.9 5.3 5.7 5.3 4.1 4.2 4.6 0.5 0.8 0.7 1.0 1.1 0.8 1.0 0.9 0.7 0.9 1.1 0.8 1.0 1.1 1.2 0.9 0.19 −0.09 −0.22 −0.31 −0.10 −0.18 −0.35 −0.22 0.02 −0.02 −0.05 0.07 −0.22 −0.15 −0.55 −0.28 0.003 0.29 0.01 0.001 0.12 0.01 0.001 0.05 0.95 0.81 0.45 0.56 0.005 0.03 0.001 0.001 0.47 −0.29 −1.05 −0.84 −0.59 −0.11 −1.30 −0.56 0.08 −0.06 −0.68 0.09 −0.33 −1.02 −1.40 0.73 0.23 −0.22 −0.66 −0.82 0.20 −1.06 −0.30 0.46 0.30 −0.28 0.48 −0.19 −0.65 −1.12 −0.98 0.001 −0.52 0.001 1.0 5.1 1.5 3.3 0.9 1.5 5.4 3.6 0.9 0.14 0.15 1.3 −0.37 0.001 0.07 0.95 −0.62 0.001 0.33 0.001 −0.45 0.001 ES effect size Comparison of attributes of good death components among groups We show aggregated percentages of all 57 attributes of a good death and differences between patients and other groups in the Supplementary Appendix. In Table 3, we show only attributes that had large differences between patients and other groups (proportion difference was >0.3). Patients were more favorable toward fighting against their disease until their last moment (81 %) compared to oncologists (19 %). Similarly, compared to oncologists, patients favored living as long as possible and using all available treatments. In addition, patients favored receiving consistent care from the same physician and nurse, living as usual without thinking about death, not having a change in their appearance, and not appearing physically or mentally weak to their family. Factors associated with “fighting against cancer” in patients by multiple regression analysis We show the results of multiple regression analysis exploring factors associated with “fighting against cancer” components in Table 4. Women (P=0.0001) and younger patients (P= 0.03) favored fighting against cancer. In regard to good death components, patients who emphasized “maintaining hope and pleasure” (P=0.0001), “unawareness of death” (P=0.0001), “good relationship with family” (P=0.004), “life completion” (P=0.01), and “physical and cognitive control” (P=0.04) favored fighting against cancer. In contrast, however, patients who emphasized “physical and psychological comfort” did not favor fighting against cancer (P=0.004). Discussion The major findings of this study were (1) the importance of good death components differed for patients and the general population compared to oncologists and oncology nurses; (2) patients favored fighting against cancer, especially on “fighting against the disease until one’s last moments”; and (3) patients who emphasized maintaining hope and pleasure, unawareness of death and good relationship with family favored fighting against cancer. However, those who emphasized physical and psychological comfort preferred not to fight. As for comparison of good death components, overall, patients and the general population showed a similar distribution. “Fighting against cancer” was highly significantly different between patients and oncologists and patients and 108 Support Care Cancer (2015) 23:103–110 Table 3 Comparison of attributes of a good death Attributes of a good death Components of a good death Proportion Patient % Fighting against disease until one’s last moment Receiving consistent care from the same physican and nurse Living as usual without thinking about death Living as long as possible Believing that one used all available treatments Not having a change in one’s appearance Not exposing one’s physical and mental weakness to anyone else Being independent in daily activities Being able to eat Feeling that one is protected by higher power beyond oneself Not making trouble for others Difference from patients General Oncologist Oncology General Oncologist Oncology population % nurse % population nurse % % % Fighting against cancer 81 66 19 30 −15 −63 −51 Good relationship with 91 medical staff Unawareness of death 88 82 48 73 −9 −44 −19 77 44 58 −11 −44 −30 Fighting against cancer 63 Fighting against cancer 92 33 75 19 51 24 57 −30 −17 −43 −41 −39 −36 Pride and beauty Pride and beauty 70 66 62 50 29 26 61 30 −8 −16 −41 −40 −9 −36 Physical and cognitive control Physical and cognitive control Religious and spiritual comfort Not being a burden to others 93 88 54 65 −5 −39 −28 95 84 59 65 −11 −36 −30 49 32 20 27 −17 −30 −22 87 84 68 56 −2 −19 −30 We showed attributes that showed a large difference between patients and each group (proportion difference was >0.3). Attributes were ordered by difference between patients and physicians oncology nurses. Many previous studies showed that patients prefer to receive aggressive treatment such as chemotherapy until the end of life even if there is little chance of cure and limited survival benefit [1, 9, 14, 24]. In contrast, oncologists and oncology nurses have knowledge of the effectiveness and adverse effects of such treatment. The previous study showed that patients who were optimistic about their prognosis favored aggressive treatment [31] and those who understood their poor prognosis were dissatisfied with the relationship Table 4 Factors related to “fighting against cancer” by multiple regression analysis β SE t value P value Intercept 1.84 0.64 2.88 Age −0.08 0.04 −2.20 Gender (0, male; 1, female) −0.41 0.10 −4.12 Importance of good death components Physical and psychological comfort −0.22 0.08 −2.95 Maintaining hope and pleasure 0.36 0.08 4.64 Good relationship with family 0.20 0.07 2.93 Physical and cognitive control 0.17 0.08 2.11 Life completion 0.14 0.05 2.64 Unawareness of death 0.19 0.05 4.00 R2=0.35, adj-R2=0.33 0.004 0.03 0.0001 0.004 0.0001 0.004 0.04 0.01 0.0001 with their physician [30]. However, a recent study showed that an end-of-life discussion with the physician resulted in receiving treatment in accordance with the patient’s wishes and that early end-of-life discussions were prospectively associated with less aggressive care and greater use of palliative care at the end of life [12, 13]. This study highlights that advance care planning may be insufficient in Japan [11, 29]. In Japanese culture, medical paternalism has predominated for a long time. In addition, Japanese patients tend to leave medical decisions to physicians (omakase-iryo) [15, 29]. In addition, Japanese patients fear abandonment by physicians and often feel that a physician who stops aggressive treatment such as chemotherapy is abandoning them [16, 19]. Patients often have unrealistic desires for prolongation of life and favor aggressive treatment because they wish to be “unaware of death.” [31] Medical paternalism may change gradually with the influence of Western culture and more autonomous or shared decision-making may be more common in the future. Many patients also fear spiritual suffering, which would occur if they became a burden to others due to physical dependence or cognitive deterioration [15, 25, 28]. “Physical and cognitive control” are also important components of a good death. Moreover, many patients want to be able to eat because they think that eating is necessary for life and eating is an important daily pleasure [17]. Oncologists and oncology nurses, however, believe that many cancer patients are not Support Care Cancer (2015) 23:103–110 able to be independent at the end of life and even if patients are dependent, it is possible to maintain dignity. Other attributes that were more important to patients than to medical professionals were not having a change in one’s appearance and not exposing one’s physical and mental weakness to anyone else. Sometimes, patients will refuse to see visitors, such as colleagues, friends, and even family. Medical professionals, including oncologists and oncology nurses, should be aware of such values around death, assess each patient’s values, and discuss them with patients and the family in order to support each person’s quality of life. We found that maintaining hope and pleasure is a strong predictor of willingness to fight against cancer. As mentioned above, Japanese patients are afraid to quit life-prolonging treatment even when they are not expected to respond. Japanese oncologists have a difficult time speaking to patients about discontinuing anticancer treatment [19]. Therefore, some patients continue non-standard chemotherapy until the end of life and some patients attempt to receive alternative medicine, which has poor evidence of effectiveness [7, 10]. These treatments have the potential to decrease quality of life and reduce quality time at the end of life. Moreover, patients need hope and the will to fight in order to withstand difficult treatments such as chemotherapy. Providing care and social systems to maintain hope and pleasure after anticancer treatments have failed are necessary to provide good palliative care [18, 22]. This study had several limitations. First, the patients were recruited at one university radiation oncology outpatient clinic and most of them were being followed up after curative treatment. In addition, oncologists and oncology nurses were recruited at one university hospital. This study may not be generalizable to other clinical settings. Second, the response rate of the general population was low. Third, the “fighting against cancer” component had three different attributes. The attribute “fighting against the disease until one’s last moments” might be a different concept for patients and medical professionals. Although medical professionals think the disease is only being fought during chemotherapy, patients might think of their battle with cancer as continuing beyond treatment until their last moments. Patients who do not give up on life might think of it as “fighting against cancer until one’s last moments.” Finally, this study asked about perceptions of cancer patients, and data on the actual treatment was not collected. Whether the perception of fighting against cancer affected the actual treatment was unknown. Further study is needed. Acknowledgments This research was supported by the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science, Grant Number 20791693. We thank Susumu Shimazono, Emi Toyoda, Fumiko Takashita, Hiroko Sagawa, and Ai Ishitoya for managing the study. 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