Subjective Toxicity Profiles of Children With Cancer During Treatment

Abstract

Background: Children and adolescents may experience a variety of subjective adverse events (AEs) caused by cancer treatment. The identification of distinct groups of patients is crucial for guiding symptomatic AE management interventions to prevent AEs from worsening. Objective: The aim of this study was to identify subgroups of children with cancer experiencing similar patterns of subjective toxicities and evaluate differences among these subgroups in demographic and clinical characteristics. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted of 356 children in China with malignancies who received chemotherapy within the past 7 days using the pediatric Patient-Reported Outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events. A latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted to identify subgroups of patients with distinct profiles of symptomatic AE occurrence. Results: Nausea (54.5%), anorexia (53.4%), and headache (39.3%) were the top 3 AEs children experienced. Nearly all participants (97. 8%) experienced ≥1 core AEs, and 30.3% experienced ≥5 AEs. The LCA results identified 3 subgroups ("high gastrotoxicity and low neurotoxicity" [53.2%], "moderate gastrotoxicity and high neurotoxicity" [23.6%], and "high gastrotoxicity and high neurotoxicity" [22.8%]). The subgroups were differentiated by monthly family per-capita income, time since diagnosis, and Karnofsky Performance Status score. Conclusions: Children experienced multiple subjective toxicities during chemotherapy, especially gastrotoxicity and neurotoxicity. Heterogeneity was found in the LCA in the patients'