Vital signs are routinely measured in secondary healthcare settings and can be used to detect clinical problems, guide treatment, and monitor response to treatment. Vital signs are less frequently measured in palliative care settings. Reasons for this are unclear. This scoping review aimed to assess the generic use of vital signs in palliative care, and its role in prognostication for adult patients with cancer receiving palliative care. Medline, Embase, and CINAHL were searched for articles involving adult patients with advanced cancer receiving palliative care who had their vital signs measured. Twenty-six articles were identified in which one or a combination of vital signs, with or without other clinical parameters, was used to prognosticate for patients. An additional three articles investigated the generic use of vital signs in patients with advanced cancer. There was significant heterogeneity between identified studies, with some indication that changes in vital signs may indicate that a patient is close to death. However, other studies suggested that patients may maintain normal vital signs until the time of death. Further studies are needed to explore whether abnormal vital signs may be used as a prognostic indicator for patients with cancer receiving palliative care.

Background: Constipation is common in people with advanced cancer and is associated with significant morbidity and health economic burden, but it is often sub-optimally managed. Despite international consensus diagnostic criteria for functional and opioid-induced constipation (Rome IV diagnostic criteria), the term ‘constipation’ means different things to different people, impacting assessment, diagnosis and management. Aim: To investigate the association between persons with advanced cancer self-reporting of constipation, response to the Rome IV diagnostic criteria statements for opioid-induced constipation and differences according to personal demographics. Design: Multicentre prospective observational study. Setting/participants: Twenty-four community, hospice and hospital research sites in 10 European countries recruited 1200 adults with cancer taking opioids for cancer/cancer-treatment related pain. Results: In response to the simple question ‘Are you constipated?’ , 549 (45.5%) participants replied ‘yes’, 588 (49%) replied ‘no’ and 59 (5%) were ‘unsure’, but 713 (59.5%) participants met the Rome IV diagnostic criteria. Only 439 (61.5%) participants that met these criteria answered the simple question positively, whilst 230 (39%) answered negatively, although there was a statistically significant association between responses to the simple question and the criteria (χ ² (1, N = 1136) = 149.945, p = 0.00001). There were certain significant differences in self-reporting according to age and country of origin. Conclusions: There is disparity between patients’ self-reporting of constipation and the Rome IV diagnostic criteria. People with advanced cancer, especially those receiving opioid analgesics, need to be regularly assessed for constipation, but the use of a single question ( ‘Are you constipated?’ ) is inadequate. Registry: European Study of Opioid Induced Constipation (E-StOIC), NCT05149833, https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05149833 , 08/12/2021.