Unmet Palliative Care Needs of Patients Newly Diagnosed With Advanced Gynaecological Cancer in Korea: A Mixed-Method...

Newly diagnosed advanced gynaecological cancer patients may have different palliative care needs than those diagnosed earlier. Identifying unmet palliative care needs and the kind of support they want should be prioritised to provide appropriate support for them.

The aim of this study was to determine the unmet palliative care needs of Korean patients with newly diagnosed advanced gynaecological cancer and to explore the support they desire from family, medical staff, hospitals and government.

A mixed-method study included quantitative approaches with a cross-sectional design and inductive qualitative approaches with individual written narratives. Among the original data obtained from 115 patients with advanced gynaecological cancer through an online survey, this study included only quantitative and qualitative data from 75 patients diagnosed with gynaecological cancer within the past year. Regarding quantitative data, the Problems and Needs in Palliative Care Questionnaire was used, and palliative care needs were analysed using the range in percentages of subscales. Through qualitative content analysis, qualitative data were newly analysed regarding the palliative care participants wanted from various support providers.

The palliative care needs were divided into two aspects: 'problem' and 'need for care'. For both aspects, psychological issues, physical symptoms and financial problems were the three most prevalent domains. Participants wanted their families to provide physical and emotional support. They desired information, emotional support, trustworthy partnerships and professionalism from medical staff; healthcare-related and emotional palliative care programs from hospitals; and policies for financial and service-related assistance from the government.

As newly diagnosed advanced gynaecological cancer patients have various palliative care needs, they need to form a multidisciplinary team of experts to provide complicated and integrated support. We recommended that an early palliative care program be created to meet the patients' palliative care needs shown in our findings in future studies.