Symptom distress, functional status and health-related quality of life before high-dose chemotherapy with stem-cell transplantation

• Published in: European journal of cancer care Vol. 12; no. 1; pp. 71 - 80
• Main Authors: LARSEN, J., NORDSTRÖM, G., BJÖRKSTRAND, B., LJUNGMAN, P., GARDULF, A.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01.03.2003; Hindawi Limited
• Subjects: Activities of Daily Living; Adolescent; Adult; Aged; Aged, 80 and over; Antineoplastic Agents - adverse effects; Antineoplastic Agents - therapeutic use; breast cancer; Cancer; cancer patients; Chemotherapy; Combined Modality Therapy - methods; Combined Modality Therapy - psychology; Female; Functional status; haematological malignancies; HRQOL; Humans; Male; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Middle Aged; Neoplasms - drug therapy; Neoplasms - psychology; Nursing; pre-SCT assessment; Psychological distress; Quality of life; Quality of Life - psychology; Stem Cell Transplantation - psychology; Stem cells; stem-cell transplantation; Stress, Psychological - etiology; Surveys and Questionnaires; symptom distress; Symptoms; Transplants; Sweden
• ISSN: 0961-5423; 1365-2354; 1365-2354
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2354.2003.00315.x

The aims of this study were to describe how a group of patients with different malignant diseases perceived symptom distress (SD), functional status (FS) and health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) on admission to the hospital for stem‐cell transplantation (SCT), to compare the obtained data regarding FS and HRQOL with similar data from two general‐population groups, and to relate the results to disease‐ and treatment‐specific data. Fifty‐one patients participated in the study. Three instruments were used to collect data: SFID‐SCT, SIP and SWED‐QUAL. The majority of the patients (92%) reported ongoing symptoms even before the SCT with tiredness (67%) and anxiety (53%) as the two most commonly reported symptoms. Although tiredness and anxiety were reported to be the most frequently occurring symptoms, these symptoms were not considered to cause that much distress. Instead, vomiting, reduced mobility and fever, although less commonly occurring, were reported as highly distressing when present. Compared with the general‐population groups, the patients reported significantly poorer FS and HRQOL but no statistically significant correlations were found between SD, FS or HRQOL and the time since the last chemotherapy cycle or cycles respectively. Patients with advanced disease and patients with multiple myeloma were found to report more SD and poorer FS and HRQOL.