Identifying distress at late disease stages along the cancer treatment journey — ASN Events

Identifying distress at late disease stages along the cancer treatment journey (#185)

Cristiane D. Bergerot 1 , Paulo G. Bergerot 1 , Alexandre Nonino 1 , Marco M. Buso 1
  1. CETTRO - Centro de Câncer de Brasília, Brasília, DF, Brazil

Patients with advanced cancer can experience intensified distress and uncertainty during the treatment period of their illness. Enhanced comprehension about how patient deal, cope and adapt with diagnosis can offer directions for patients care. The objective of this study was to explore and describe distress level across the cancer treatment trajectory in brazilian patients with late stages of cancer. A retrospective study was done with 294 patients, of both gender (39.5% men; 60.5% female). Mean age was 58.5 years (SD = 14.4 years), 62.6% were married and 57.9% had at least college degree. The main diagnoses were gastrointestinal (34%), hematological malignancies (16.3%), breast (15%) and lung cancer (9.9%); 44.6% were with stage III and 55.4% with stage IV. They were assessed with Distress Thermometer and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale at three points of evaluation: first day of chemotherapy (T1), three months after T1 (T2), and six months after T1 (T3). Overall 53.4% of patients reported clinically significant distress (DT ≥ 4) in T1, 21.9% in T2 and 11.1% in T3. The anxiety and depression scores progressively declined, as the distress level. There were a significant relationship (p<.001) between them, in all points of evaluation. Female patients reported more incidence of clinically significant distress across the cancer treatment trajectory, compared with men (T1: 43.1% men, 60.1% women; T2: 17.4% men, 24.5% women; T3: 3.9% men, 15.1% women). In addition to this opening results, complementary data will be reported at the meeting. The preliminary results shows a high incidence of distress, anxiety and depression at the beginning of treatment (T1), being more prevalent among women, suggesting relationship between distress and impact of the cancer diagnoses/treatment, as well as distress and gender differences. We pointed out that patients need to be screened for distress regularly, and supported.