Sleep quality in lung cancer and specifically non-small-cell lung cancer: a rapid review.

Abstract

Purpose: Sleep quality contributes to the improvement of quality of life in cancer patients. However, sleep disturbances, of variable and heterogeneous etiologies, are common and frequently overlooked in lung cancer patients. The present study undertakes a rapid review of available peer-reviewed literature on sleep quality in lung cancer patients, specifically non-small-cell lung cancer patients.

Design: MEDLINE, Embase, and CENTRAL online databases were used to identify 513 published articles from which 26 publications were selected through abstract and title screening, full-text review, and quality assessment.

Results: Most publications (96.15%) involved observational studies, including 12 cross-sectional studies, 6 longitudinal studies, and 6 descriptive comparative studies. Sleep quality was assessed using either subjective or objective measures or both. Sleep disturbances were found in 45-97% of patients. Poor sleep efficiency and frequent night-time awakenings were consistently reported, whereas discrepancies were found concerning sleep duration and sleep latency.

Conclusion: Our rapid review of the literature confirms that sleep disorders, which impair quality of life, remain frequent and often neglected in this patient population. Assessment of sleep quality in patients with non-small-cell lung cancer should be the subject of further studies into how to better identify and characterize them to implement appropriate therapeutic strategies, using a global approach to improve quality of life despite the underlying cancerous disease.