Effectiveness of pain management strategies in breast cancer patients case study

Abstract

Pain experienced in breast cancer lowers the quality of life. Pain management aims to provide relief to cancer patients. The research proposal analyses existing studies conducted on the different pain management techniques; through a comparative analysis, the best method for mitigating pain in breast cancer patients through a comparative analysis can be identified. The research highlights the different approaches to determine the most effective methods for pain management and the benefits of combining therapies over monotherapies. The data collected from the study will be analyzed with the use of quantitative methods, more specifically through the use of a variance test. The study aims to determine the most effective pain management strategy in breast cancer patients.

Background and Rationale of Choice

Pain is among breast cancer's most commonly reported effects. According to Costa et al. (2017), pain frequents 39.3% of the curative treatment cases, 55% during treatment, and 66.4% during the terminal stages of the illness. In women, breast cancer is the most lethal form of cancer. As the occurrence increases, the number of breast cancer patients and survivors also increases. Therefore, it becomes increasingly important to determine proper pain management methods. Effective pain management would significantly improve the quality of life of many breast cancer patients. 

Different approaches address pain management, and several non-pharmacologic therapies exist, but medication is the most commonly accepted pain management method. The research intends to evaluate pharmacologic, non-pharmacologic, and integrative strategies. Through this evaluation, it is possible to determine which treatment strategy exhibits the most favorable results among cancer patients. In addition, the research will determine what strategies are most effective in cancer management and whether combining therapies yields any observable benefits over monotherapy approaches. Breast cancer patients can improve their quality of life by identifying a practical pain management approach. 

Aims and Objectives

• The study aims to compare the existing cancer therapies and determine their effectiveness in pain mitigation among breast cancer patients. 
• The study will compare and analyze the current research on different cancer therapies. 
• The study's main objective is to analyze pharmacologic, non-pharmacologic, and integrative therapies and determine their effectiveness in pain management in patients with breast cancer.
• The study intends to analyze previous research to develop a detailed comparison and evaluation of the patient's responses to treatment and, based on quantitive techniques, determine the most effective pain management strategy.

Research Methodology

Research methodology refers to the tools used to select, collect, process, and evaluate information. The selection of correct research methods is critical to getting relevant information to make credible conclusions. The research methodology comprises qualitative and quantitative techniques; qualitative techniques analyze non-numerical data, while quantitative methods utilize statistical mathematical and numerical analysis methods. This research utilizes the analysis of variance test, a quantitative method, to analyze the collected data. 

A literature review evaluates a collection of scholarly articles related to a research topic or question. Using an integrative literature review, researchers can explore the different findings in primary research studies and provide new information on the subject. A random integrative search will be done on the other repositories to collect the most relevant sources released over the last five years. A boolean search can further refine the search results where applicable. The keywords include breast cancer and pain management keywords. Different combinations can be utilized to increase the pool of results. Words combined with the keywords include therapy, treatments, pharmacology, integrative, and combined therapies. After eliminating the duplicated results, the remaining results will be evaluated based on relevance based on modal searches of the keywords within the documents to select the sources most applicable to the research.

Literature Review

There are a variety of pain management therapies for breast cancer; the most common is treatment through medication. Alhazmi et al. (2017) identify the different multidisciplinary approaches to pain management. The research analyses pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic therapies employing qualitative research techniques to identify the various pain management therapies.

In contrast, Deng's (2019) research analyses integrative medicine therapies. The study elaborates on the different integrative therapies through quantitative techniques. The evidence advocates a multitherapy approach to pain management and determines the most effective non-pharmacological therapies; music therapy, hypnosis, and acupuncture. 

Brenin et al. (2020) conducted an analysis based on medical treatments. The study extensively analyzes the pharmacological options for managing pain. Based on a qualitative research model, the research concludes that multimodal pain management approaches exhibit the best outcomes.

In their study, Gunnarsdottir et al. (2017) examine the relationship between pain management in cancer and the relationship of the different therapies to the variables in demographic and the patient's quality of life. The research exclusively analyses the use of opioids as a pain management technique through the use of analysis of covariance test on the result of the differences in attitude barrier scores.

Lare et al. (2022) highlight the development in cancer pain management, outlining the different pharmacological management methods in post-surgical and post-chemotherapy situations. The study identifies opioids as the most commonly used method of pain management but not the most effective, claiming they are detrimental to the patient's health. 

Tan et al. (2022) discuss the different non-pharmacological techniques for patients affected by breast cancer. Though the research does not necessarily focus on pain management, much of the content intersects with previously identified sources, increasing its relevance to the study. Of the methods analyzed, it identifies five approaches as high-quality interventions. The research covered the two aspects addressed in the research question identifying the different medical and non-medical techniques and varied analysis methods. The evaluation of these studies provides understanding and recommendations on the existing research on pain therapies.

Ethical Concerns

It is required that research studies adhere to ethical standards. Ethical research is truthful and lacks errors. According to Navalta et al. (2018), the principles of ethics in research include authorship, good research practices, non-discrimination, objectivity, respect for intellectual property, and disclosure of financial interests. Researcher incompetence, conflicts of interest, and falsification and fabrication of evidence challenge the ethical foundation of research (2018). Research should be reliable and authentic and adhere to proper research practices.

Timeline

The researcher needs the right time allocation to provide objective and accurate results. A timeline helps keep track of activities performed within a study. This study requires time to analyze the journal and article entries retrieved from the different repositories and the information collected from selected journals. One week will be allocated for the collection of the literature and the determination of the correct sources. A week will be allocated for the collection of data. Two weeks will be allocated to analyze the collected information, tabulate results and make observations.

Budget and Resources

The data utilizes secondary resources as the means of data collection. The researcher will conduct the data analysis using statistical software alongside a proven qualitative research method. Therefore, as the only resources required are secondary sources, the budget required to facilitate access to the different paid repositories to enable the study to access an extensive data pool. The budget will give for ten paid literature sources, with the average cost being $50.

Once sources are decided upon, the necessary financial resources to access the document can be allocated.

Suggestions

Research gaps exist in combining the analysis of various methods, pharmacological, non-pharmacological, and integrated approaches to determine which is the most effective in managing pain in cancer patients. By conducting this research, the available studies can be compared and evaluated to determine the best technique to be leveraged by breast cancer patients and other cancer patients, by extension. 

Conclusion

The study aims to use secondary data based on previous studies to identify the most suitable technique for pain management. Cancer patients identified the prevalence of pain in breast cancer. Pain limits the patient's quality of life, hence the need for proper management methods. Various methods have been developed to deal with pain in breast cancer. There are categorized as pharmacologic, non-pharmacologic, and integrative approaches. Ultimately, this research study may benefit cancer patients and facilitate the adoption of better management methods.

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