Abstract
Abstract Background: Patients undergoing treatment for advanced cancer often experience multiple symptoms. These symptoms occur with varying frequency, intensity, and impact. Pain, fatigue, insomnia, anorexia and dyspnea are consistently among the 10 most prevalent symptoms associated with cancer and its treatment. We conducted a multivariate analysis to investigate the impact of cancer symptoms on patient quality of life (QoL) in breast cancer.Material and Methods: A consecutive series of 226 breast cancer patients treated at the Cancer Treatment Centers of America at Southwestern Regional Medical Center between Jan 2001 and Nov 2006. Cancer symptoms were assessed using the symptom subscales of European Organization for Research Treatment of Cancer - Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30). Symptom scores range from 0-100 with lower scores indicating better while higher scores indicating worse symptoms. QoL was assessed using Ferrans and Powers Quality of Life Index (QLI). QLI measures overall QoL and QoL in 4 major subscales: health/physical, social/economic, psychological/spiritual, and family. QLI scores range from 0-30 with higher scores indicating better QoL. The relationship between QLQ-C30 symptoms and QLI was evaluated using multivariate linear regression.Results: Of 226 patients, 98 were newly diagnosed while 128 had failed prior treatment before coming to our hospital. The mean age was 52.5 years (range = 27-82 years). We found that every 10 unit increase in fatigue (p=.004) and pain (p=.001) was significantly associated with 0.65 and 0.66 unit decline in QLI health/physical subscale after controlling for age, treatment history, stage at diagnosis and other cancer symptoms. Similarly, every 10 unit increase in insomnia (p=.02) was significantly associated with 0.35 unit decline in QLI family subscale. Finally, every 10 unit increase in pain (p=.01) and insomnia (p=.03) was significantly associated with 0.34 and 0.21 unit decline in overall QoL.Discussion: We found fatigue, pain and insomnia to be independent predictors of QoL after controlling for each other, age, treatment history and stage at diagnosis. Recognition and timely treatment of symptom clusters could result in improved QoL in patients with breast cancer. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(24 Suppl):Abstract nr 5043.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
