• Kari Røhrl, Marianne Grønlie Guren, Christine Miaskowski, Bruce A Cooper, Lien My Diep, and Tone Rustøen.
• Institute for Health and Society, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway; Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Oslo, Norway. Electronic address: kari.rohrl@medisin.uio.no.
• J Pain Symptom Manage. 2016 Oct 1; 52 (4): 539-547.

ContextColorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common cancers worldwide. Patients with CRC may have multiple cooccurring symptoms as a result of their disease or its treatment. Little is known about potential differences in symptom burden in CRC patients scheduled to receive curative versus palliative chemotherapy (CTX).ObjectivesThe purposes of this study were to investigate the overall symptom burden of patients with CRC before their first CTX treatment or before the initiation of a new CTX regimen and to evaluate for differences in symptom occurrence, severity, and distress between patients with CRC who were scheduled to receive curative versus palliative CTX.MethodsConsecutive patients with CRC were recruited (n = 120), and symptoms were assessed using the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale before the initiation of the CTX. The most common symptoms that occurred in ≥30% of the patients were evaluated. Differences in occurrence rates and severity and distress scores between the curative (n = 68) and palliative (n = 52) patient groups were evaluated using binary logistic regression and ordinal logistic regression analyses, respectively.ResultsIn both groups, patients reported an average of 10 cooccurring symptoms. Worrying (65%), lack of energy (59%), feeling drowsy (54%), feeling bloated (53%), pain (51%), and difficulty sleeping (50%) were the most prevalent symptoms. Problems with sexual interest had the highest severity and distress scores in both groups. For the 13 most common symptoms, no significant differences were found between the two patient groups on any of the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale dimensions (i.e., occurrence, severity, distress).ConclusionRegardless of the reason for CTX, CRC patients experience a large number of cooccurring symptoms.Copyright © 2016 American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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