Physical symptoms that impact quality of life, such as nausea and shortness of breath, may predict shorter survival for patients with terminal cancer.
A new study published July 26, 2004 in the online edition of CANCER, a peer-reviewed journal of the American Cancer Society, finds a patient's symptoms and results of quality of life assessments may provide important clues to an individual patient's prognosis. Psychosocial factors, such as anxiety or spiritual distress, did not predict shorter survival.
In order to give the most appropriate treatment options to newly diagnosed cancer patients, physicians often assess a patient's health-related quality of life (hrQoL), along with tumor characteristics that predict the aggressiveness of the disease and, ultimately, outcome (i.e., response rate to treatments, overall survival, time to progression, and survival in years). In the field of palliative care, length of survival and quality of life are paramount. Research has demonstrated that clinical factors and tumor characteristics predict survival in terminal cancer patients, but there is limited data on the predictive value of hrQoL measures, such as physical and psychological symptoms. Existing research suggests that physical symptoms, not psychosocial symptoms, predict length of survival. However, the conclusions of these studies are weakened by methodological shortfalls.