Study designs of evaluations included in the review
Studies with at least one control group were eligible for inclusion. The specific design details of each of the included studies were not provided.
Specific interventions included in the review
Studies of any psychosocial intervention were eligible for inclusion. The categories of intervention studied were patient education, social support, coping skills training, and psychotherapeutic interventions. Further details of these categories were provided in the report.
Participants included in the review
Studies of adult patients with cancer were eligible for inclusion. Patients with breast cancer were the most frequently presented in the included studies, followed by patients with neoplasm of the lung and mediastinum, gastrointestinal neoplasm, and other sites (not specified in the report).
Outcomes assessed in the review
Studies evaluating QoL were eligible for inclusion. The QoL assessment instruments used in the included studies were classified as emotional versus functional, global versus specific, self-reported versus observer rating, and trait versus state. Further details on the different instruments were provided in the report. Studies that evaluated psychiatric syndromes (fear or depression), survival time, relapse rate or the side-effects of treatment were excluded.
How were decisions on the relevance of primary studies made?
The authors did not state how the papers were selected for the review, or how many reviewers performed the selection.