Abstract
Liver cancer is a leading cancer in Taiwan, especially in males. Transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) is a major treatment for these patients, but research examining their fatigue experiences is limited. The purposes of this longitudinal, correlational study were to identify (1) changes in fatigue, symptom distress, anxiety and depression in cancer patients across four time points during the first week of TACE treatment, and (2) factors predicting changes in fatigue across the four time points. Eligible male inpatients with liver cancer were recruited from a medical center in Taipei. Subjects (n=40) were assessed 1 day before (T1), and during days 2 (T2), 4 (T3) and 6 (T4) of TACE. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, Pearson’s correlations, repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) and the generalized estimating equation (GEE). Subjects had mild to moderate levels of fatigue that peaked at T2, and showed a decrease at T3 and T4 but were still slightly higher than at T1. The GEE analysis showed that greater symptom distress, anxiety and depression, higher Adriamycin dosage, longer duration of previous fatigue, and less education significantly predicted fatigue changes. The results indicate that the pattern of fatigue in TACE during the first week is similar to fatigue in patients receiving chemotherapy. The results also further indicate that fatigue is associated to several factors. The causal relationships between fatigue and these related factors should be examined. Interventions targeting these factors should also be tested in future studies.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Berger AM (1998) Patterns of fatigue and activity and rest during adjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy. Oncol Nurs Forum 25:51–62
Berger AM, Higginbotham P (2000) Correlates of fatigue during and following adjuvant breast cancer chemotherapy: a pilot study. Oncol Nurs Forum 27:1443–1448
Blesch KS, Paice JA, Wickham R, et al (1991) Correlates of fatigue in people with breast or lung cancer. Oncol Nurs Forum 18:81–87
Bosch FX, Ribes J, Borras J (1999) Epidemiology of primary liver cancer. Semin Liver Dis 19:271–285
Broeckel JA, Jacobsen PB, Horton J, Balducci L, Lyman GH (1998) Characteristics and correlates of fatigue after adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer. J Clin Oncol 16:1689–1696
Cancer Registration System (2004) 2000 annual report. http://www.crs.cph.ntu.edu.tw
Chen JD, Liu CJ, Lee PH, et al (2004) Hepatitis B genotypes correlate with tumor recurrence after curative resection of hepatocellular carcinoma. Clin Gastroenterol Hepatol 2:64–71
Chen MF, Jeng LB, Lee WC, Chen TC (1998) Surgical results in patients with dual hepatitis B- and C-related hepatocellular carcinoma compared with hepatitis B- or C- related hepatocellular carcinoma. Surgery 123:554–559
Chen PY, See LC, Wang CH, et al (1999) The impact of pain on the anxiety and depression of cancer patients. Formos J Med 3:373–382
Department of Health (2004) Health statistics. http://www.doh.gov.tw/static/data
Ferrell B, Grant M, Padilla G, Vermuri S, Rhiner M (1991) The experience of pain and perception of quality of life: validation of conceptual model. Hosp J 7(3):9–24
Hann DM, Jacobsen PB, Martin SC, et al (1997) Fatigue in women treated with bone marrow transplantation for breast cancer: a comparison with women with no history of cancer. Support Care Cancer 5:44–52
Hann DM, Garovoy N, Finkelstein B, et al (1999) Fatigue and quality of life in breast cancer patients undergoing autologous stem cell transplantation: a longitudinal comparative study. J Pain Symptom Manage 17:311–319
Hortom NJ, Lipsitz SR (1999) Review of software to fit generalized estimating equation regression models. Am Statistician 53:160–169
Hu FB, Goldberg J, Hedeker D, Flay BR, Pentz MA (1998) Comparison of population-averaged and subject-specific approaches for analyzing repeated binary outcomes. Am J Epidemiol 147:694–703
Huang JS, Chao CC, Su TL, et al (2004) Diverse cellular transformation capability of overexpressed genes in human hepatocellular carcinoma. Biochem Biophys Res Commun 315:950–958
Ikeda M, Okada S, Yamamoto S, et al (2002) Prognostic factors in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma treated by transcatheter arterial embolization. Jpn J Clin Oncol 32:455–460
Irvine D, Vincent L, Graydon JE, Bubela N, Thompson L (1994) The prevalence and correlates of fatigue in patients receiving treatment with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. A comparison with the fatigue experienced by healthy individuals. Cancer Nurs 17:367–378
Jacobsen PB, Hann DM, Azzarello LM, et al (1999) Fatigue in women receiving adjuvant chemotherapy for breast cancer: characteristics, course, and correlates. J Pain Symptom Manage 18:233–242
Lai YH (1998) Symptom distress and home care needs in patients receiving chemotherapy in an outpatient setting. J Nurs Res 6:279–289
Lai YH, Chang JT, Keefe FJ, et al (2003) Symptom distress, catastrophic thinking, and hope in nasopharyngeal carcinoma patients. Cancer Nurs 26:485–493
Lee YS, Tsai YF, Lai YH, Kao RH (2002) Fatigue levels and related factors in lung cancer patients during chemotherapy. Formos J Med 6:797–804
Lin DY, Lin SM, Liaw YF (1997) Non-surgical treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. J Gastroenterol Hepatol 12(9–10):S319–328
Lin ML, Tsang YM, Hwang SL (1998) Efficacy of a stress management program for patients with hepatocellular carcinoma receiving transcatheter arterial embolization. J Formos Med Assoc 97(2):113–117
Lovely MP, Miaskowski C, Dodd M (1999) Relationship between fatigue and quality of life in patients with glioblastoma multiforme. Oncol Nurs Forum 26:921–925
Marin G, Marin BV (1991) Research with Hispanic populations. Applied social research methods series, vol 23. Sage, Newbury Park, CA
McCorkle R, Quint-Benoliel J (1983) Symptom distress, current concerns and mood disturbance after diagnosis of life-threatening disease. Soc Sci Med 17:431–438
McCorkle R, Young K (1978) Development of symptom distress scale. Cancer Nurs 1:373–378
Okuyama T, Tanaka K, Akechi T, et al (2001) Fatigue in ambulatory patients with advanced lung cancer: prevalence, correlated factors, and screening. J Pain Symptom Manage 22:554–564
Piper B (1999) Improving the clinical measurement of cancer treatment-related fatigue (abstract). In:Better Health Through Nursing Research: State of the Science Congress Proceedings. American Nurses Association, Washington, DC, p 99
Piper BF, Dibble SL, Dodd M, et al (1998) The revised Piper Fatigue Scale: psychometric evaluation in women with breast cancer. Oncol Nurs Forum 25:677–684
Richardson A, Ream E, Wilson-Barnett J (1998) Fatigue in patients receiving chemotherapy: patterns of change. Cancer Nurs 21:17–30
Schwartz AL (2000) Daily fatigue patterns and effect of exercise in women with breast cancer. Cancer Pract 8:16–24
Schwartz AL, Nail LM, Chen S, et al (2000) Fatigue patterns observed in patients receiving chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Cancer Invest 18:11–19
So WK, Dodgson J, Tai JSM (2003) Fatigue and quality of life among Chinese patients with hematologic malignancy after bone marrow transplantation. Cancer Nurs 26:211– 219
Woo B, Dibble SL, Piper BF, Keating SB, Weiss MC (1998) Differences in fatigue by treatment methods in women with breast cancer. Oncol Nurs Forum 25:915–920
Yamada T, Makita F, Takehara K, et al (1994) Evaluation of the therapeutic effect of TAE on primary liver cancer. Cancer Chemother Pharmacol [Suppl] 33:S55–59
Zeger SL, Liang K, Albert PS (1988) Models for longitudinal data: a generalized estimating equation approach. Biometrics 44:1049–1060
Zigmond AS, Snaith RP (1983) The hospital anxiety and depression scale. Acta Psychiatr Scand 67(6):361–370
Acknowledgement
This study was partly supported by a grant from the National Science Council in Taiwan. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support and assistance of the patients who participated in this study. The authors also thank Claire Baldwin for her English editing.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shun, SC., Lai, YH., Jing, TT. et al. Fatigue patterns and correlates in male liver cancer patients receiving transcatheter hepatic arterial chemoembolization. Support Care Cancer 13, 311–317 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-004-0740-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-004-0740-0