Objectives - To assess the prevalence of spiritual needs and spiritual distress of patients with incurable solid cancer undergoing systematic treatment and to assess the factors affecting spiritual distress in these group of patients
Sample and setting - Patients aged 18 years and above with incurable solid tumours undergoing systemic treatment in any line ( first and later lines) in a tertiary care cancer centre in a low-middle income country
Procedures - Patients will be administered the 39 item , Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual Well-Being (FACIT-Sp) scale and 23 item , Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy - Spiritual Well-Being Expanded Version (FACIT-Sp-Ex) questionnaires
Results - The above items will be used to calculate the FACIT Sp 12 score, FACT-General total score , Spiritual well- being expanded subset score, sub scores in the domains of peace , meaning and faith respectively and compared with the previously published studies in the same domains. The recruitment is ongoing and the results will be shared by the time of presentation.
Conclusion and clinical implications - Spiritual needs of advanced care patients are ignored in most care settings. Our study will help quantify the same and try to understand which patients are more spiritually distressed. Suitable interventions can be directed towards these identified patients as a part of holistic psycho-oncology care.