Objective ― Symptoms of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), along with the side-effects of treatment interventions (e.g. nausea and vomiting due to cytotoxic drugs), are supposed to influence negatively the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of the patients. An understanding of the determinants of SCLC patients’ HRQoL could help health professionals in clinical decision making, screening and prediction of health outcomes. The aim of this review was to identify the health-related quality of life determining factors of patients with SCLC. Methods ― A literature review in the PubMed database was conducted in relation to the clinical and sociodemographic determinants of SCLC patients’ HRQoL. The extraction and evaluation of the studies was carried out, according to preset criteria, by two reviewers who worked independently. Results ― Thirty-three publications were detected four of which met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the included studies were randomized trials. By the multivariate statistical analysis it was detected that negative influence on SCLC patients’ HRQoL had the female gender (Wald Chi-Square=7.86, p=0.005), the quite a bit or very much tiredness (χ2=28.54, p<0.001), the walking difficulty (χ2=31.80, p<0.001) and the presence of dyspnea (χ2=47.52, p<0.001). Conclusions ― Health professionals could pay more attention to the management of cancer-related fatigue and dyspnea as well as to the enhancement of patients’ mobility through low-impact exercise programs or appropriate assistive devices.

Aim ― Meta-analysis of clinical trials comparing the efficacy of medical therapy (MT) and surgical treatment, including cardiac resynchronization therapy with and without cardioversion-defibrillation (CRT and CRT-D), circulatory support system (CSS) and heart transplantation (HT), in terms of decreasing overall mortality in patients with severe chronic heart failure (CHF). Material and Methods ― Meta-analysis included 39 clinical trials with a total number of 30,257 patients. Search was performed in MEDLINE, Medscape, Pubmed databases and on web resources, dedicated to clinical trials (National Institutes of Health, Clinical Center, ClinicalStudyResults.org, ClinicalTrials.gov). Results ― There was no significant overall mortality reduction in patients receiving MT when compared to control group: OR=0.97 (95% CI: 0.85-1.10), p=0.211. Treatment with CRT and CRT-D, as well as CSS implantation and HT reduced overall mortality: OR=0.67 (95% CI: 0.57–0.79), p < 0.001 for CRT/CRT-D and OR=0.46 (95% CI: 0.24–0.86), p = 0.018 for CSS/HT. Conclusion ― Superiority of surgical treatment over traditional MT in terms of overall mortality was observed in patients with severe CHF.