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Assessment of baseline symptom burden in treatment-naïve patients with lung cancer: an observational study

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Abstract

Background

Patients with newly diagnosed lung cancer who have not yet begun treatment may already be experiencing major symptoms produced by their disease. Understanding the symptomatic effects of cancer treatment requires knowledge of pretreatment symptoms (both severity and interference with daily activities). We assessed pretreatment symptom severity, interference, and quality of life (QOL) in treatment-naïve patients with lung cancer and report factors that correlated with symptom severity.

Methods

This was a retrospective analysis of data collected at initial intake. Symptoms/interference were rated on the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) between 30 days prediagnosis and 45 days postdiagnosis. We examined symptom severity by disease stage and differences in severity by histology. Linear regression analyses identified significant predictors of severe pain and dyspnea.

Results

Of 460 eligible patients, 256 (62%) had adenocarcinoma, 30 (7%) had small cell carcinoma, and 100 (24%) had squamous cell carcinoma; > 30% reported moderate-to-severe (rated ≥ 5, 0–10 scale) pretreatment symptoms. The most-severe were fatigue, disturbed sleep, distress, pain, dyspnea, sadness, and drowsiness. Symptoms affected work, enjoyment of life, and general activity (interference) and physical well-being (QOL) the most. Patients with advanced disease (n = 289, 63%) had more-severe symptoms. Cancer stage was associated with pain severity; both histology and cancer stage were associated with severe dyspnea.

Conclusion

One third of lung cancer patients were symptomatic at initial presentation. Quantification of pretreatment symptom burden can inform patient-specific palliative therapy and differentiate disease-related symptoms from treatment-related toxicities. Poorly controlled symptoms could negatively affect treatment adherence and therapeutic outcomes.

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Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Jeanie F. Woodruff, BS, ELS, for editorial assistance. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health.

Funding

All research at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center is supported in part by the institution’s Cancer Center Support Grant, NCI P30 CA016672. The sponsors played no role in study design, in the collection, analysis, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, or in the decision to submit the article for publication.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Kenneth L. Kehl

    Present address: Division of Population Sciences, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, 450 Brookline Ave, Boston, MA, 02215, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Symptom Research, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Unit 1450, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Tito R. Mendoza, Oluwatosin Bamidele, Loretta A. Williams, Qiuling Shi & Charles S. Cleeland

  2. Division of Cancer Medicine, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Unit 112, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    Kenneth L. Kehl

  3. Department of Thoracic/Head & Neck Medical Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, 1515 Holcombe Boulevard, Unit 432, Houston, TX, 77030, USA

    George Simon

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  1. Tito R. Mendoza
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Contributions

Tito Mendoza: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, investigation, methodology, project administration, supervision, validation, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing

Kenneth Kehl: conceptualization, investigation, and writing—review and editing

Oluwatosin Bamidele: conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing

Loretta Williams: conceptualization, investigation, and writing—review and editing

Qiuling Shi: data curation, methodology, and writing—review and editing

Charles Cleeland: conceptualization, investigation, resources, supervision, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing

George Simon: conceptualization, investigation, writing—original draft, and writing—review and editing

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tito R. Mendoza.

Ethics declarations

The study was approved by our Institutional Review Board. As this was a retrospective review of deidentified data, the requirement for informed consent was waived.

Conflict of interest

The MD Anderson Symptom Inventory is copyrighted and licensed by The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center and Charles S. Cleeland. The authors report no other conflicts of interest in this work.

Research involving human participants and/or animals

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Précis

We assessed pretreatment symptom severity in 460 patients with lung cancer; one third were already experiencing moderate-to-severe symptoms (especially fatigue, disturbed sleep, distress, pain, dyspnea, sadness). Because poorly controlled symptoms can disrupt treatment adherence and therapeutic outcomes, baseline symptom assessment and early supportive care to palliate these symptoms are needed.

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Patients with lung cancer already experience moderate/severe symptoms (especially fatigue, disturbed sleep, distress, pain, shortness of breath, sadness) before they begin treatment. Early assessment and supportive care to palliate these symptoms are needed.

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Mendoza, T.R., Kehl, K.L., Bamidele, O. et al. Assessment of baseline symptom burden in treatment-naïve patients with lung cancer: an observational study. Support Care Cancer 27, 3439–3447 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-018-4632-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-018-4632-0

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