Patient-reported symptoms before adjuvant locoregional radiotherapy for breast cancer: triple-negative histology impacts the symptom burden
Permanent lenke
https://hdl.handle.net/10037/35061Dato
2024-03-26Type
Journal articleTidsskriftartikkel
Peer reviewed
Sammendrag
Patients and methods Retrospective review of 132 patients treated between 2016 and 2021 (all comers in breast-conserving or post-mastectomy settings, different radiotherapy fractionations) was performed. All ESAS items and the ESAS point sum were analyzed to identify subgroups with higher symptom burden and thus need for additional care measures.
Results The biggest patient-reported issues were fatigue, pain, and sleep problems. Patients with triple negative breast cancer reported a higher symptom burden (mean 30 versus 20, p= 0.038). Patients assigned to adjuvant endocrine therapy had the lowest point sum (mean 18), followed by those on Her-2-targeting agents without chemotherapy (mean 19), those on chemotherapy with or without other drugs (mean 26), and those without systemic therapy (mean 41), p= 0.007. Those with pathologic complete response after neoadjuvant treatment had significantly lower anxiety scores (mean 0.7 versus 1.8, p= 0.03) and a trend towards lower depression scores, p= 0.09.
Conclusion Different surgical strategies, age, and body mass index did not impact on ESAS scores, while the type of adjuvant systemic therapy did. The effect of previous neoadjuvant treatment and unfavorable tumor biology (triple negative) emerged as important factors associated with symptom burden, albeit in different domains. ESAS data may facilitate identification of patients who should be considered for additional supportive measures to alleviate specific symptoms.