The Relationship between Distressing Symptoms and Performance Status among Cancer Patients Receiving Palliative Care

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Medical Surgical Department, Faculty of Nursing, Cairo University, Egypt

2 Palliative Medicine Unit, Kasr Al-Ainy Center of Clinical Oncology and Nuclear Medicine (NEMROCK), Kasr Al-Ainy,School of Medicine, Cairo University, Egypt.

Abstract

Background: Patients with advanced cancer experience distressing symptoms and progressive decline in their
performance status (PS) as death approaches.
Aim: To identify the relationship between symptom burden and PS of Egyptian cancer patients receiving palliative care.
Methods: This was a prospective observational study that included 100 patients with advanced cancer. Symptom burden
was assessed using the Arabic version of the revised Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS-r). Performance
status was assessed using the Palliative Performance Scale (PPS).
Results: The mean total ESAS-r score was 60.1 (±10.7). The most common symptom to be reported as severe was pain
(93%) followed by tiredness (74%), poor wellbeing (67%), lack of appetite (62%), anxiety (60%) and drowsiness (56%).
The majority of patients (76%) had a PPS score ≤30 with an overall mean PPS score of 36.2 (±13.3). There was a
statistically significant negative correlation between the total ESAS score and the PPS score (r = - 0.687, p = < 0.001).
Conclusion: The results suggest that Egyptian patients with advanced cancer experience high symptom burden and
significant decline in PS. The higher the symptom burden, the poorer the PS of patients with advanced cancer.

Keywords

Research in Oncology
Volume 13, Issue 2
December 2017
Pages 51-55

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