Salminen E, Clemens K E, Syrjänen K, Salmenoja H
Department of Oncology and Radiotherapy, Turku University Hospital, P.O. Box 52, Savitehtaankatu 1, Turku, Finland.
Support Care Cancer. 2008 Jan;16(1):3-8. doi: 10.1007/s00520-007-0252-9. Epub 2007 Apr 26.
To clarify the prevalence and severity of the symptoms, 203 consecutive patients with breast, prostate and other cancers treated mainly for palliation were surveyed.
The series includes 116 men and 87 women with the mean age of 65 years (range 27-86 years). The patients filled-up the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) questionnaire with 11 items describing cancer-related symptoms in the visual analogue scale (VAS).
Altogether, 98% of the patients reported at least 1 of the 10 symptoms. There was a significant difference in the score frequencies between the 10 symptoms (p = 0.0001), fatigue receiving the highest frequency (50.8%) of the high scores. Fatigue was also the single most frequent symptom reported by 86.3% of the patients, followed by pain at effort (71.5%), sleeplessness (71.1%) and depression (59.0%). The most disturbing syndrome was pain (n = 48, 23.9%), followed by fatigue (n = 28, 13.9%), depression (9.5%) and dyspnoea (6.0%). Altogether, 75% had more than 5 symptoms and 10% reported all 10 symptoms. The total number of symptoms was not significantly associated with sex (p = 0.781) or age (p = 0.062), but it was associated with the diagnostic group; patients with breast cancer (n = 41) and those with prostate cancer (n = 44) reported fewer symptoms than the patients with other cancers (n = 116)(p = 0.023, Kruskal-Wallis).
Symptoms related to cancer are common among patients treated with palliative indication, but if not specifically surveyed, may remain un-detected and un-treated. ESAS as a clinical tool brings more symptoms to the attention of the physicians and helps in getting a comprehensive insight into the patient's problems.
为明确症状的患病率及严重程度，对203例主要接受姑息治疗的乳腺癌、前列腺癌及其他癌症患者进行了连续调查。
该系列包括116名男性和87名女性，平均年龄65岁（范围27 - 86岁）。患者填写了埃德蒙顿症状评估系统（ESAS）问卷，该问卷有11项，用视觉模拟量表（VAS）描述与癌症相关的症状。
总计，98%的患者报告了10种症状中的至少1种。10种症状的得分频率存在显著差异（p = 0.0001），疲劳得分频率最高（50.8%）。疲劳也是86.3%的患者报告的最常见单一症状，其次是用力时疼痛（71.5%）、失眠（71.1%）和抑郁（59.0%）。最困扰的综合征是疼痛（n = 48，23.9%），其次是疲劳（n = 28，13.9%）、抑郁（9.5%）和呼吸困难（6.0%）。总计，75%的患者有超过5种症状，10%的患者报告了所有10种症状。症状总数与性别（p = 0.781）或年龄（p = 0.062）无显著相关性，但与诊断组有关；乳腺癌患者（n = 41）和前列腺癌患者（n = 44）报告的症状少于其他癌症患者（n = 116）（p = 0.023，Kruskal - Wallis检验）。
与癌症相关的症状在接受姑息治疗的患者中很常见，但如果未进行专门调查，可能仍未被发现和治疗。ESAS作为一种临床工具能让医生更多地关注症状，并有助于全面了解患者的问题。
