• Elizabeth Brown, Adam Hurlow, Af Rahman, S Jose Closs, and Michael I Bennett.
• St. Michael's Hospice, Harrogate, UK. lbrown@saintmichaelshospice.org
• J Palliat Med. 2010 Nov 1; 13 (11): 1327-30.

BackgroundBlood transfusions are often used as a potential treatment for cancer-related fatigue in anaemic palliative care patients. However, evidence of benefit using validated outcomes measures is lacking.AimThe aim of this study was to test the feasibility of using two such tools; the Brief Fatigue Inventory and FACT F-fatigue subscale, to measure change in fatigue following a blood transfusion.MethodAnemic cancer patients receiving specialist palliative care and undergoing transfusion for fatigue, completed the tools pre- and 3 days post-transfusion.ResultsThirty patients with cancer-related fatigue who received a blood transfusion completed the study. Both measures were capable of detecting statistical and clinically significant change in fatigue following transfusion. Furthermore, the measures showed significant differences between patients that did, or did not, report an overall improvement in fatigue. Patients found the measures easy to complete with no preference for one over another. Future clinical trials of blood transfusion for the management of fatigue should incorporate these validated outcome measures.

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