Symptom clusters experienced by breast cancer patients at various treatment stages: A systematic review

Cancer Medicine

Alexandra L. McCarthy¹  Carmen W. H. Chan²  Dorothy N. S. Chan²  Winnie K. W. So²  Bernard M. H. Law²  Marques S. N. Ng²  Xiaole He² 

[1] School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work University of Queensland and Mater Health Services Brisbane Queensland Australia;The Nethersole School of Nursing Faculty of Medicine The Chinese University of Hong Kong Hong Kong SAR China;

关键词: breast cancer;    cancer treatment;    symptom clusters;    symptoms;   

DOI  :  10.1002/cam4.3794

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Abstract Breast cancer patients often experience symptoms that adversely affect their quality of life. It is understood that many of these symptoms tend to cluster together: while they might have different manifestations and occur during different phases of the disease trajectory, the symptoms often have a common aetiology that is a potential target for intervention. Understanding the symptom clusters associated with breast cancer might usefully inform the development of effective care plans for affected patients. The aim of this paper is to provide an updated systematic review of the known symptom clusters among breast cancer patients during and/or after cancer treatment. A search was conducted using five databases for studies reporting symptom clusters among breast cancer patients. The search yielded 32 studies for inclusion. The findings suggest that fatigue‐sleep disturbance and psychological symptom cluster (including anxiety, depression, nervousness, irritability, sadness, worry) are the most commonly‐reported symptom clusters among breast cancer patients. Further, the composition of symptom clusters tends to change across various stages of cancer treatment. While this review identified some commonalities, the different methodologies used to identify symptom clusters resulted in inconsistencies in symptom cluster identification. It would be useful if future studies could separately examine the symptom clusters that occur in breast cancer patients undergoing a particular treatment type, and use standardised instruments across studies to assess symptoms. The review concludes that further studies could usefully determine the biological pathways associated with various symptom clusters, which would inform the development of effective and efficient symptom management strategies.

【 授权许可】

Unknown