title: Psychosocial and Behavioral Interventions and Cancer Patient Survival Again: Hints of an Adjusted Meta-Analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Although there is evidence that psychosocial and behavioral interventions (PBIs) increase well-being, improve coping and adjustment, and reduce distress among cancer patients, findings regarding PBIs as a means for prolonging survival were not convincing. Conflicting findings resulted in tremendous controversies over the efficacy of PBIs. This study aims at estimating the pooled effects of PBIs on survival of cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized controlled trials (RCTs) testing the effects of any kind of PBIs on the survival of cancer patients included in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cancer Lit, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, and reference lists of relevant articles were retrieved and reviewed by 2 independent researchers. Data items derived from the articles included time and duration of study, intervention types and doses, and numbers of patients dying and surviving 1, 2, 4, and 6 years after intervention. Estimation of the collective effects of the interventions used meta-analysis via Review Manager (version 5).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 15 RCTs met inclusion criteria, involving 2041 subjects (1118 in intervention and 923 in control groups). Inclusive total mean Mantel-Haenszel risk ratios (RRs) ranged from 0.83 to 0.99, and 3 of these effect sizes were statistically nonsignificant. Yet when the RCTs with less than 30 hours of PBIs were excluded, all the RRs decreased to some extent, with the RR for the first 2 years being decreased to 0.69 (95% CI, 0.55-0.87) and 0.82 (95% CI, 0.71-0.95), respectively.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  PBIs with adequate intervention doses prolong survival at least for some cancer patients in the first 2 years after intervention, although longer term effects need to be determined via more studies.
authors.affiliation: School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Yi
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Guixian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Tong
authors.affiliation: School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Feng
authors.affiliation: School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chai
authors.affiliation: School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China.
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cheng
authors.affiliation: School of Health Services Management, Anhui Medical University, Hefei, China dbwang@vip.sina.com.
authors.forename: Debin
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D001521:Behavior Therapy / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors
keywords: behavioral; cancer; intervention; meta-analysis; psychosocial; survival