Chemotherapy-Induced Fatigue Correlates With Higher Fatigue Scores Before Treatment

Abstract

We conclude that fatigue induced by chemotherapy is common and consistently associated with higher fatigue scores before treatment. Screening for fatigue before chemotherapy may help to identify patients who are prone to develop CIF.

Nutritional status according to the mini nutritional assessment (MNA)® as potential prognostic factor for health and treatment outcomes in patients with cancer – a systematic review

“…One study showed that MNA-score was predictive for fatigue evaluated by the Chalder Fatigue Scale (mean value at follow-up 26.8 ± 4.8; correlation coefficient r = − 0.52, p = 0.01) but not by the Brief Fatigue Inventory (mean value at follow-up 22.4 ± 23.7; correlation coefficient and p-value not reported) in chemotherapy-treated patients with various types of cancer and a mean age of 53 years [40].…”

“…In 8 studies [40, 52-54, 56, 58, 69, 87] also patients < 65 years were included. In 3 of these studies [40,53,58] mean age was 65 years or lower.…”

“…Most of the studies [16, 33-37, 39, 41, 42, 44-47, 49-57, 59, 60, 62, 63, 65-67, 69, 73, 75-79, 82-87] were conducted in Northern, Western or Southern Europe, 5 studies [38,40,43,48,68] in North or South America and 8 [58,61,64,70,72,74,80,81] in Eastern Asia.…”

“…Twenty-three studies [16, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 44-47, 49, 59-62, 67, 71, 75-77, 82, 84, 85] merged patients with malnutrition and at risk of malnutrition, and reported 27.0-85.0% being at least at risk, while 2 other studies [57,72] merged patients at risk of malnutrition and well-nourished patients. Four studies reported a mean or median baseline MNA-score [40,48,51,70], and 2 studies did not report concrete results [41,50].…”

Higher levels of stress and different coping strategies are associated with greater morning and evening fatigue severity in oncology patients receiving chemotherapy

“…Differences in the perception and evaluation of external events create variability in ANS and HPA activity levels, resulting in variable levels of perceived stress [3] that may influence inter-individual variability in fatigue severity. While higher levels of perceived stress were associated with greater fatigue severity [8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15], the majority of these studies were cross-sectional and evaluated only women with breast cancer [8][9][10][13][14][15].…”