The clinical utility of Memorial Symptom Assessment-Short Form and Condensed Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale in Turkish lung cancer patients.

INTRODUCTION

Symptom assessment is essential in the palliative care of patients with cancer. We studied the Memorial Assessment Scale Test-Short Form (MSAS-SF) and Condensed Memorial Assessment Test (CMSAS) in Turkish lung cancer patients.

MATERIAL AND METHOD

Fifty-one patients with lung cancer (47 non-small, 4 small cell) were staged according to the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer 2007 and filled the MSAS-SF. Karnofsky performance status, TNM staging, MSAS-SF and CMSAS scores were recorded. The study was approved by the local research ethics committee.

RESULTS

The mean age of 51 patients was 61.7 ± 9. Fifty-one percent were staged as M1 while 49% were staged as M0. The mean values for global distress index, PHYS (physical symptom distress), PSYCH (psychological symptom score) and MSAS-SUM were 1.15 ± 0.8, 0.9 ± 0.8, 1.13 ± 1.03 and 0.82 ± 0.47 in order. The mean values for CPHYS (physical symptom distress for Condensed MSAS), CPSYCH (psychological symptom score for CMSAS) and CSUM (sum scores) were 1.2 ± 0.75, 1.22 ± 1.1 and 1.16 ± 0.69 in order. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for MSAS-SF and CMSAS were 0.861 and 0.728 in order. Summary scores for both MSAS-SF and CMSAS-SF were significantly higher in patients with M1 disease than from M0 disease. In addition, PHYS and MSAS-SUM in MSAS-SF were significantly correlated with T and N stage. The area under curve for MSAS-SF and CMSAS were 0.793 and 0.70 in order.

CONCLUSION

MSAS-SF and CMSAS demonstrated significantly higher scores in lung cancer patients with M1 disease than patients with M0 disease. Further studies are needed to evaluate the usefulness of MSAS-SF and CMSAS in lung cancer patients.