Symptom networks in breast cancer patients during chemotherapy and their impact on daily living status

TL;DR

This study maps symptom relationships in breast cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and shows how these symptoms affect daily life.

Contribution

The paper introduces a symptom network approach to identify key symptoms and their impact on daily living during chemotherapy.

Findings

Fatigue was identified as the core symptom in the overall network.

Distress had the greatest impact on daily life among breast cancer patients.

Symptom patterns varied based on chemotherapy cycles and BMI.

Abstract

Few current studies explore the relationships among chemotherapy - related symptoms in breast cancer patients from different perspectives, and the link between symptoms and daily life is unclear.

To construct a symptom network for breast cancer patients during chemotherapy and explore symptom - symptom relationships from multiple perspectives.

The Anderson Symptom Inventory was used to collect symptom data and daily - life interference of 480 patients. R software built the symptom network, and edge - weight and centrality difference tests identified core symptom clusters.

The 480 female patients had a mean age of 52.46 years. Symptoms were common during chemotherapy, like fatigue and restless sleep. Fatigue was the core symptom in the overall network, but it varied among groups with different chemotherapy cycles and BMI. Distress had the greatest impact on daily life.

Attention should be paid to psychological and emotional symptoms, and priority symptoms for intervention should be selected based on the symptom network. Future research should develop dynamic symptom networks and centrality index trajectories using longitudinal data.

Nurses can implement precise symptom management based on the symptom network. Meanwhile, comprehensive assessments of patients’ psychological and emotional problems should be initiated from the early stage of chemotherapy, and symptom management methods should be selected according to the severity of patients’ conditions to improve their psychological and emotional well - being.

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