Patients' experiences with cancer-related fatigue: a review and synthesis of qualitative research.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES: To systematically review published qualitative reports of descriptions of fatigue by patients with cancer and how cancer-related fatigue (CF) affects their lives.

DATA SOURCES

MEDLINE®, CANCERLIT®, Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Two researchers conducted independent reviews of 667 patient quotes found in 154 articles published from 1996-2009 to identify concepts and language used to describe CF.

CONCLUSIONS

CF is more intense than the tiredness patients recalled from before diagnosis or treatment. Published patient quotes fail to adjudicate whether CF should be approached as a single symptom or a more complex symptom cluster.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING

Systematic study of patients with different cancer types and stages is needed to identify effective, valid, and reliable self-reported assessments of CF for clinical practice and trials.