Symptom clusters in patients with metastatic cancer: a literature review

This article reviews the literature reporting empirically determined symptom clusters in patients with metastatic cancer. A literature search was conducted on symptom clusters within heterogeneous metastatic cancer patient populations using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL. Studies examining predetermine...

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Published inExpert review of pharmacoeconomics & outcomes research Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 597 - 604
Main Authors Thavarajah, Nemica, Chen, Emily, Zeng, Liang, Bedard, Gillian, Di Giovanni, Julia, Lemke, Madeline, Lauzon, Natalie, Zhou, Michelle, Chu, Dominic, Chow, Edward
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published England Informa Healthcare 01.10.2012
Taylor & Francis
Expert Reviews Ltd
Subjects
Anxiety
Cancer clusters
Cancer therapies
Cluster Analysis
Cross-sectional studies
Dyspnea
Fatigue
Humans
Insomnia
Literature reviews
Longitudinal studies
Metastasis
metastatic cancer
Nausea
Neoplasm Metastasis - pathology
Neoplasms - pathology
Outcome Assessment (Health Care)
Pain
Palliative care
Patients
Principal components analysis
Quality of life
Radiation
Research Design
symptom cluster
symptom distress
Symptom management
Canada
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Summary:This article reviews the literature reporting empirically determined symptom clusters in patients with metastatic cancer. A literature search was conducted on symptom clusters within heterogeneous metastatic cancer patient populations using MEDLINE, EMBASE, and CINAHL. Studies examining predetermined symptom clusters were excluded. A total of eight relevant studies published between 2005 and 2011 were identified. The number of symptom clusters extracted varied from two to eight clusters per study, comprising of two to eight symptoms per cluster. There were no clusters consistently identified within all eight studies. Notable differences in symptoms assessed, assessment tools, statistical analysis, patient demographics were observed between the studies. The lack of consensus among the inter-study symptom clusters are likely due to the differences in patient population as well as study methodology. Further exploration in metastatic symptom cluster research will ideally improve patient outcomes by facilitating improved symptom management in future clinical practice.
ISSN:1473-7167
1744-8379
DOI:10.1586/erp.12.41