Nursing Support for Nausea and Vomiting in Patients With Cancer: A Scoping Review

Masamitsu Kobayashi; Kohei Kajiwara; Miharu Morikawa; Yusuke Kanno; Kimiko Nakano; Yoshinobu Matsuda; Yoichi Shimizu; Taichi Shimazu; Jun Kako

doi:10.7759/cureus.48212

Nursing Support for Nausea and Vomiting in Patients With Cancer: A Scoping Review

Cureus. 2023 Nov 3;15(11):e48212. doi: 10.7759/cureus.48212. eCollection 2023 Nov.

Authors

Masamitsu Kobayashi¹, Kohei Kajiwara², Miharu Morikawa³, Yusuke Kanno⁴, Kimiko Nakano⁵, Yoshinobu Matsuda⁶, Yoichi Shimizu⁷, Taichi Shimazu⁸, Jun Kako⁹

Affiliations

¹ Graduate School of Nursing Science, St. Luke's International University, Tokyo, JPN.
² Faculty of Nursing, Japanese Red Cross Kyushu International College of Nursing, Munakata, JPN.
³ Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto University, Kyoto, JPN.
⁴ Nursing Science, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Tokyo, JPN.
⁵ Clinical Research Center for Developmental Therapeutics, Tokushima University Hospital, Tokushima, JPN.
⁶ Department of Psychosomatic Internal Medicine, National Hospital Organization Kinki-Chuo Chest Medical Center, Sakai, JPN.
⁷ Faculty of Nursing, National College of Nursing, Tokyo, JPN.
⁸ Division of Behavioral Sciences, National Cancer Center Institute for Cancer Control, National Cancer Center, Tokyo, JPN.
⁹ Department of Nursing, Graduate School of Medicine, Mie University, Mie, JPN.

Abstract

Nausea and vomiting are symptoms commonly experienced by patients with advanced cancer and have a wide range of causes, including pharmacological interventions. Additionally, multiple factors often simultaneously cause nausea and vomiting. These highly distressing symptoms may be directly or indirectly related to the disease and can significantly impact both the physical and psychological well-being of patients. This study aims to identify the nursing support provided to reduce nausea and vomiting experienced by patients with cancer. This study followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Extension for Scoping Reviews checklist and Arksey and O'Malley's framework. We searched the PubMed, the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials in the Cochrane Library, and the Ichushi-Web of the Japan Medical Abstract Society databases for all content published from the inception of each database through July 31, 2023. A total of 4,625 scientific articles were identified after literature screening. In total, 58 articles were included for full-text review, and 10 articles were finally selected for review. The types of study designs comprised six randomized controlled trials, three prospective observational studies, and one before-after study with no controls. The types of cancers included in the articles were colorectal, breast, lung, pancreatic, gynecological, stomach, and sarcoma. The total sample size of the study population was 793 patients (range = 12-281) for intervention studies and 4,333 patients (range = 20-4,197) for observational studies. Nursing support, extracted from the 10 articles, was classified into the following six types: massage therapy, acupressure, early palliative care, psychosocial support, self-symptom monitoring, and coordinated care. The review yielded six classifications of nursing support for nausea and vomiting in cancer patients. Future research should examine the feasibility of providing nursing support for nausea and vomiting in cancer patients.

Keywords: cancer; cancer disease symptoms; nausea and vomiting; nursing support; psychological support; quality of life; scoping review; terminally ill.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

The authors disclose receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI (grant number 21H03236). The funders had no role in the study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or manuscript preparation.