Abstract
Cancer patients often experience multiple symptoms, and those symptoms can independently predict changes in patient function, treatment failures, and post-therapeutic outcomes. Symptom clusters are defined as two or more concurrent symptoms that are related and may or may not have a common cause. The purpose of the present study was to review, in cancer patients, common symptom clusters and their predictors.Using MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Central, and CINAHL, we conducted a literature search on symptom clusters in cancer patients. Studies that investigated predetermined clusters were not included. We identified seven individual studies and one group of five studies validating the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory. These studies had been published between 1997 and 2006. Two of the seven individual studies and the group of five studies that had validated the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory included patients with any cancer type; three studies included breast cancer patients only; and two studies included lung cancer patients only.A gastrointestinal cluster consisting of nausea and vomiting was the single cluster common to two of the studies. The severity of this cluster increased when patients were treated with chemotherapy. No common clusters were found in the lung and breast cancer patient populations. However, breast cancer patients experienced more symptom cluster involvement while undergoing chemotherapy. We noted methodology disparities among the papers with regard to assessment tools used, statistical analyses, and populations.Research on symptom clusters is still in an early stage. Multiple symptoms clearly affect prognosis, quality of life, and functional status. The study of symptom clusters is important for its implications regarding patient management, and a consensus on appropriate research methodology is vital.
Highlights
Cancer patients often experience multiple symptoms, and symptoms seldom occur in isolation in patients with advanced cancer
Symptom cluster research is in its early stages, and many questions remain unanswered in this field
Some publications on symptom clusters have involved the symptoms depression, pain, sleep disturbance, and fatigue, but many of those studies did not statistically test to validate the symptom cluster [19,20,21]; instead, the symptom clusters in those studies were derived based on prior knowledge and literature about the relationships between the chosen symptoms
Summary
Cancer patients often experience multiple symptoms, and symptoms seldom occur in isolation in patients with advanced cancer. Symptoms may be a result of the disease itself or of the associated treatment. They may considerably affect the patient’s sense of wellbeing and his or her physical and social functions. Most clinical studies in symptom research have focused largely on the treatment of individual symptoms. This focus has undoubtedly led to some advances in the understanding of particular symptoms, but patients seldom present with a single symptom— which may perhaps explain why treating one symptom may not necessarily improve quality of life
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