This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Symptom clusters predicted poor outcomes after surgery for esophageal cancer
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Various symptoms appear to cluster together in certain patients after surgery for esophageal cancer, and those clusters appear to have a strong prognostic value, according to study results.
"As this is the first study of symptom clusters in surgically treated esophageal cancer patients, further work is needed to confirm the existence of these symptom clusters in this patient population,” Anna Wikman, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, said in a press release. “However, the present findings do suggest that post-operative symptoms should not be considered in isolation but that clusters of symptoms must be considered.”
The study included data pooled from a prospective Swedish nationwide cohort study of 402 patients who underwent surgery for esophageal cancer recruited between 2001 and 2005.
Researchers identified three symptom clusters 6 months after surgery.
The first cluster — characterized by fatigue, pain, insomnia and dyspnea — was present in 30% of patients. The second cluster — characterized by dry mouth, taste problems, reflux and coughing — was present in 28% of patients. The third cluster — characterized by appetite loss, eating difficulties, dysphagia and nausea/vomiting — was present in 27% of patients.
Patients with the reflux/cough symptom cluster (adjusted HR=1.43; 95% CI, 1.08-1.89) and the nausea/vomiting symptom cluster (adjusted HR=1.41; 95% CI, 1.06-1.87) demonstrated a significantly increased risk for mortality.
“It seems that patients who experience clustering of certain symptoms also have an increased mortality risk over and above the effect of other known prognostic factors,” Wikman said. “These findings suggest that it may be important to address these symptom clusters in the clinical setting in order to potentially reduce the increased mortality risk associated with them.”
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts