3112.0: Monday, October 22, 2001: 2:30 PM-4:00 PM

Oral Session

Epidemiology of Symptoms of Cancer and Cancer-related Treatment

Cancer remains the second leading cause of mortality in the United States. Symptoms caused by cancer and its treatments are a major aspect of disease-related morbidity and is a major detriment to patients' quality of life and ability to function. Despite application of existing symptom control measures, patients undergoing cancer therapy often have treatment-related symptoms that have a negative impact on their well-being. The presence of chronic and severe pain and other symptoms like fatigue, nausea and vomiting, and dyspnea were shown to have negative impact on the quality of life of cancer patients and their families. Further, an unknown number of patients give up curative therapy due to treatment-related symptoms that are poorly understood and difficult to manage. Increased recognition of the symptoms that often accompany and follow cancer therapy is integral in improving disease management and quality of life of cancer patients. The purposes of this session are to: 1) provide a brief overview on symptom management; 2) present symptom assessment tools that compare both single and multiple symptom scales to standard quality of life measure; 3) present findings from a symptom surveillance system that utilizes an interactive voice response home telephone system among community-dwelling oncology patients; 4) present findings on current symptom research (cancer-related fatigue; symptom patterns and its impact on quality of life among community-dwelling patients receiving radiotherapy; factors associated with cancer related fatigue; and survey of health professionals in Latin America) and 5) discuss application of findings to improve symptom management.
See individual abstracts for presenting author's disclosure statement.
Learning Objectives: At the end of the session, the participants will be able to: identify the prevalence of symptoms (i.e., pain, fatigue, etc.) related to cancer and its treatment; identify the negative impact of symptoms on patients' quality of life and ability to function; describe the importance of reliabilty and validity of assessment tools; discuss applications of findings to improve symptom management.
Organizer(s):Cielito C Reyes-Gibby, DrPH
Leaha Beattie-Palmer, BSN, RN
2:30 PMAdvanced cancer care in Latin America and Caribbean: A survey of health professionals
Isabel Torres, MPH, Xin S Wang, MD, Palos Guadalupe, LMSW, Pam Jones, BS, Ibrahima Gning, DDS, Liliana DeLima, MS, Tito R. Mendoza, PhD, Charles S. Cleeland, PhD
2:40 PMComparing single and multiple symptom scales to standard quality of life measure: The Case of the Brief Fatigue Inventory and the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory
Tito R Mendoza, PhD, Charles Cleeland, PhD
2:50 PMFactors associated with cancer-related fatigue in patients with Leukemia and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma
Xin Shelley Wang, MD, Sergio A. Giralt, MD, Martha C. Engstrom, MS, Tito R Mendoza, PhD, Beth Johnson, RN, Neomi Peterson, MSN, Charles Cleeland, PhD
3:00 PMSymptom tracking using interactive voice response technology
Mary K Easley, MSN, Karen O Anderson, PhD, Xin S Wang, MD, Leaha Beattie-Palmer, BSN, Jane O Brown, BSN, Gary Mobley, MS, Charles S Cleeland, PhD
3:10 PMSymptoms and its impact on quality of life among cancer patients receiving radiation therapy
Cielito C. Reyes-Gibby, DrPH, Tito R Mendoza, PhD, Xin S Wang, MD, Mary K Easley, MSN, Gary Mobley, MS, Charles Cleeland, PhD
3:20 PMSymptoms associated with autologous blood or marrow transplantations
Karen O Anderson, PhD, Jane O. Brown, RN, BSN, CRRN, Leaha Beattie-Palmer, BSN, RN, Joyce L. Neumann, BS, MS, AOCN, Sergio Giralt, M D, Charles S. Cleeland, PhD
3:30 PMWelcoming Remarks
Sponsor:Epidemiology
Cosponsors:Socialist Caucus
CE Credits:CME, Health Education (CHES), Nursing, Pharmacy, Social Work

The 129th Annual Meeting of APHA