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. 2014 Sep;19(9):1103-19.
doi: 10.1177/1359105313484782. Epub 2013 Oct 24.

Conceptualizing prognostic awareness in advanced cancer: a systematic review

Allison J Applebaum  1 , Elissa A Kolva  2 , Julia R Kulikowski  3 , Jordana D Jacobs  3 , Antonio DeRosa  3 , Wendy G Lichtenthal  3 , Megan E Olden  4 , Barry Rosenfeld  2 , William Breitbart  3
Affiliations

Conceptualizing prognostic awareness in advanced cancer: a systematic review

Allison J Applebaum et al. J Health Psychol. 2014 Sep.

Abstract

This systematic review synthesizes the complex literature on prognostic awareness in cancer. A total of 37 studies examining cancer patients' understanding of their prognosis were included. Prognostic awareness definitions and assessment methods were inconsistent across studies. A surprisingly high percentage of patients (up to 75%) were unaware of their poor prognosis, and in several studies, even their cancer diagnosis (up to 96%), particularly in studies conducted outside of North America. This review highlights surprisingly low rates of prognostic awareness in patients with advanced cancer as well as discrepancies in prognostic awareness assessment, suggesting the need for empirically validated measures of prognostic awareness.

Keywords: advanced cancer; awareness of diagnosis; peaceful awareness; prognosis; prognostic awareness.

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PRISMA flow diagram. Source: Reproduced with permission from the study by Moher et al. (2009).
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