Implications of Symptom Burden Among Breast Cancer Survivors
Posted: Thursday, June 17, 2021
Breast cancer survivors differ widely in the burden of symptoms they experience after the end of treatment, suggesting attention toward tailored approaches to follow-up care is necessary. Kelly de Ligt, PhD, of the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam, presented this study on behalf of her colleagues at the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Breast Cancer Virtual Congress 2021 (Abstract 134P_PR).
Breast cancer expert Nadia Harbeck, MD, of the University of Munich, who was not involved in this study, offered this perspective on these findings in an ESMO press release: “These new data show that if we specifically assessed women’s needs in this respect at different stages in their follow-up journey, we could adapt the care we offer not just to their risk of recurrence, but also to their physical and mental state over time.”
The researchers surveyed 404 patients from the Netherlands Cancer Registry who had survived surgically treated stage I to III breast cancer. Patients were between 1 and 5 years post-diagnosis. Patients were assessed using a standardized quality-of-life survey for their experienced burden of fatigue, nausea, pain, dyspnea, insomnia, appetite, constipation, diarrhea, financial burden, plus emotional and cognitive symptoms. Patients were stratified by treatment and patient characteristics. Their symptom burdens were compared with an age- and sex-matched general reference population.
Three patient subgroups were identified by symptom burden: low (n = 116, 28.7%), intermediate (n = 224, 55.4%), and high (n = 59, 14.6%). Patients in the low subgroup reported a lower symptom burden than did the general population, whereas the intermediate group reported a similar symptom burden to the general population and the high group had a worse symptom burden than the general population. Patients who had one comorbidity (relative risk ratio = 2.75) or more (relative risk ratio = 9.19) were significantly more likely to be part of the high symptom burden subgroup. There appeared to be no significant association between patient or treatment characteristics and the various subgroups.
Disclosure: The study authors reported no conflicts of interest.
