Identifying psychosocial distress in cancer patients in a community center.

Abstract

e23193 Background: Psychosocial distress is common in cancer patients. It can cause decreased treatment adherence, lesser treatment satisfaction, low quality of life, and lower survival rate. Distress management is critical to improving cancer survivorship. National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) Distress Thermometer (DT) is widely used to assess psychosocial problems in cancer patients in five categories - practical, family, emotional, spiritual and physical problems. The aim of our study is to identify the distress pattern in cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy in our center using DT adapted from the NCCN. Methods: This is a retrospective study. Total 192 cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy were included, who were screened with DT at initial visit. Patients were asked to rate their level of distress from 0-10 on DT and select categories. We collected data on distress score, selected categories, age, gender, and primary cancer site. Distress score < 4 were defined as low and = > 4 as high. Our objective was to evaluate distress categories and if distress level (high vs low) is dependent on age ( < 65 vs = > 65), gender, and primary cancer site (top 7 cancer types in our clinic by volume). Statistical test used - Chi-square. Results: Median age - 66.5 years (range: 29-96); Gender: Male/Female - 44.3%/55.7%. Median distress score - 3. Low distress was reported by 55.2% and high distress by 44.8%. Cancer types: Breast (29.7%); Lung (17.7%); Prostate (10.9%); Hematological malignancies (7.3%); Lymphoma (6.7%); Urothelial (6.7%); Head and Neck (6.2%); Others (13.4%). Overall, physical problems were the most common (63.5%) followed by emotional (56.3%), practical and family (32.3%), and spiritual (2.1%). Among patients with high distress, 84.9% reported emotional problems, while 83.7% reported physical problems. Distress level was not dependent on age, gender and primary cancer site. Conclusions: Emotional and physical problems are the most common problems among our study population with high distress level which requires further interventions/referrals. Identifying psychosocial needs of cancer patients with DT can help optimize their care.