Change of patient perceptions of chemotherapy side effects in breast and ovarian cancer patients

Objective:

Studies in 1983, 1993, and 2002 identified patient perceptions (PP) and individual ranking of chemotherapy side effects (CSE). We aimed to update this survey and evaluate changes in patient perceptions a further decade later.

Methods:

Patients with breast (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) were recruited in this prospective study before start of chemotherapy. At week 12 +/- 3 weeks after chemotherapy initiation patients were asked to identify out from 72 cards displaying potential physical and non-physical CSE the ten most burdensome and rank them finally to top five by severity. Results are reported for the entire group and in comparison to published data.

Results:

The most severe CSE among 126 patients (85 BC and 41 OC) was “difficulty sleeping” compared to “vomiting” in 1983, “nausea” in 1993, and “affects my family/partner” in 2002 (table 1). “Loss of hair” remained a top concern over all studies. The most severe CSE in BC patients was “loss of hair” in contrast to “difficulty sleeping“ in OC patients.

Tab. 1:

Comparison of the ranking of side effects from 1983 – 2017

Ranking of side effects	1983 (Coates et al.)	1993 (Griffin et al.)	2002 (Carelle et al.)	2017 Current study
1	Vomiting	Nausea	Affects my family or partner	Difficulty sleeping
2	Nausea	Constantly tired	Loss of hair	Affects my family or partner
3	Loss of hair	Loss of hair	Constantly tired	Loss of hair
4	Thought of coming treatment	Thought of coming treatment	Affects my work, home duties	Numbness in limbs

Conclusions:

PP of CSE have changed markedly over decades. Especially taxane related CSE are reported more frequently. However, “loss of hair” has remained an unsolved problem over decades.