Trajectories and Predictors of Symptom Occurrence, Severity, and Distress in Prostate Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiation Therapy
Open accessAbstract
Context Radiation therapy (RT) is a common treatment for prostate cancer. Despite available research, prostate cancer patients report that information about side effects is their most important unmet need. Additional research is needed that focuses on specific dimensions of the patient's symptom experience.Objectives The study's purposes were to evaluate the trajectories of occurrence, severity, and distress of the six most prevalent symptoms reported by patients undergoing RT for prostate cancer and the effects of selected demographic and clinical characteristics on these trajectories.Methods Patients completed the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale 11 times before, during, and after RT. For problems with urination, pain, lack of energy, feeling drowsy, difficulty sleeping, and diarrhea, the trajectories of occurrence, severity, and distress were evaluated using multilevel generalized linear models.Results Across all three dimensions, pain, lack of energy, feeling drowsy, and difficulty sleeping followed a decreasing linear trend. Problems with urination and diarrhea demonstrated more complex patterns of change over time.Conclusion Although longitudinal data on pain, lack of energy, feeling drowsy, and difficulty sleeping are limited, they are highly prevalent symptoms in these patients. In addition, diarrhea becomes a significant problem for these patients over the course of RT. A number of demographic and clinical characteristics affect the trajectories of these common symptoms differentially.
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Previous studies have reported negative side effects of fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression among men diagnosed with PC during and following RT.
“Previous studies have reported the negative side effects of fatigue, sleep disturbance, anxiety and depression among men diagnosed with PC during and following RT.3,8-11”
From Implementation Readiness and Initial Effects of a Brief Mindfulness Audio Intervention Compared With a Brief Music Control During Daily Radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer: A Randomized Pilot Study. (2024) · cites this paper as [9]
The Discussion reports fatigue and difficulty sleeping as significant symptoms in men with prostate cancer during and after radiotherapy. The Introduction also mentions pretreatment depression as a predictor of fatigue during and after radiotherapy. The passages do not establish anxiety as a reported symptom, or depression as a side effect of radiotherapy, so they support only part of the attributed list. (LLM, conf=0.86)
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- Authors
- Knapp, K., Cooper, B., Koetters, T., Cataldo, J., Dhruva, A., Paul, S. M., West, C., Aouizerat, B. E., & Miaskowski, C.
- Affiliations
- University of California, San Francisco (US)
- Corresponding author
- Miaskowski, Christine
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Pain and Symptom Management
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012-10
- Volume
- 44
- Issue
- 4
- Pages
- 486-507
- ISSN
- 0885-3924 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3463773
- OpenAlex
- W1982761484
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 1 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 0.63
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Pain and Symptom Management (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Institute of Nursing Research (NR04835)
- National Institutes of Health (KL2 RR624130)
- American Cancer Society
- NIH Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23 AT005340)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Oncology › Cancer survivorship and care
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Prostate Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Pulmonary and Respiratory Medicine › Cancer-related cognitive impairment studies
- Keywords
- prostate cancer, radiotherapy, symptom trajectories, symptom severity, symptom distress, urinary symptoms, diarrhea, pain, fatigue, sleepiness, sleep disorders, Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale
- MeSH terms
- Aged, Fatigue, Humans, Longitudinal Studies, Male, Middle Aged, Pain, Prostatic Neoplasms, Quality of Life, Radiotherapy, Severity of Illness Index, Symptom Assessment
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