Sarcoma patients’ significant symptom burden negatively impacts quality of life

the Oncology Nurse Advisor take:

Adult patients with sarcoma experience a significant physiological and psychological symptom burden, which has a strong negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), with numerous physiological symptoms undertreated with medications, a study published in the journal Supportive Care in Cancer has shown.

For the study, researchers evaluated 79 patients with sarcoma in order to evaluate how symptom burden affects HRQoL and medication use. Most patients were diagnosed with stromal tumor, while some had leiomyosarcoma and liposarcoma.

Results showed that the most common physical symptoms experienced by patients were tiredness, lack of energy, and difficulty sleeping, while the most prevalent psychological symptoms were irritability, worrying, and anxiety.

Researchers found that 33.0% of patients reported difficulty sleeping, but only 6.3% of all patients received hypnotics.

Similarly, only 1.3% of all patients received appetite stimulants while 27.9% of patients reported experiencing lack of appetite.