Symptom clusters experienced by breast cancer patients at various treatment stages: A systematic review

AbstractBreast cancer patients often experience symptoms that adversely affect their quality of life. It is understood that many of these symptoms tend to cluster together: while they might have different manifestations and occur during different phases of the disease trajectory, the symptoms often have a common aetiology that is a potential target for intervention. Understanding the symptom clusters associated with breast cancer might usefully inform the development of effective care plans for affected patients. The aim of this paper is to provide an updated systematic review of the known symptom clusters among breast cancer patients during and/or after cancer treatment. A search was conducted using five databases for studies reporting symptom clusters among breast cancer patients. The search yielded 32 studies for inclusion. The findings suggest that fatigue ‐sleep disturbance and psychological symptom cluster (including anxiety, depression, nervousness, irritability, sadness, worry) are the most commonly‐reported symptom clusters among breast cancer patients. Further, the composition of symptom clusters tends to change across various stages of canc er treatment. While this review identified some commonalities, the different methodologies used to identify symptom clusters resulted in inconsistencies in symptom cluster identification. It would be useful if future studies could separately examine the symptom clusters that occur in breast cancer p atients undergoing a part...
Source: Cancer Medicine - Category: Cancer & Oncology Authors: Tags: REVIEW Source Type: research