Amy R. Lipson, PhD

Even with the rise in male caregivers for patients with cancer, little research has been done to ensure there is effective support for both male and female caregivers. Several researchers have reported that men experience fewer negative aspects of caregiving (such as depression) compared with female caregivers.

Researchers exam­ined whether there were differences in resource use at end of life between patients with advanced cancer who identified goals of care focused heavily upon survival versus those who identified goals of care heavily focused on quality of life.

A new study funded by the National Institutes of Health (NRO14856), "Factors Influencing Cancer Care Decisions," is currently underway at the Frances Payne Bolton (FPB) School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) and the Seidman Cancer Center at Case Medical Center. The study focuses on the complex practice of shared decision-making in advanced cancer patients.

Registries, large databases of patient information collected in a systematic, standardized fashion, most often focus on biologic measures, such as pathology, radiology, and laboratory results, to track incidence and prevalence of disease as well as causative factors.