A Perspective Study of Cancer-related Fatigue in Gynecologic Cancer Patients Under Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is effective and most often used to treat cancer. The common drugs used on gynecologic cancer treatment include platinum compounds like cisplatin and carboplatin, which combined with taxane, topotecan, or liposomal doxorubicin to date. The most side effects of chemotherapy are esophagitis, mucositis, anxiety, nausea, vomiting, abdominal convulsion, painful swallowing, fatigue and sometimes diarrhea, dizziness, allergy (rash, itching), neutropenia, thrombocytopenia (fever, chills, cough, pain), anemia and bleeding.

Cancer-related fatigue (CRF), an indicator of quality of life, is a highly prevalent symptom (75-80%) during treatment and in patients with advanced cancer, yet is sometimes ignored. Fatigue affected their life more than pain. Proposed criteria for CRF have been adopted for inclusion in the International Statistical Classification of Disease and Related Health Problems, Tenth Revision, Clinical Modification (ICD-10-CM). Therefore, more in-depth researches on CRF are needed in Taiwan. Patients with CRF in need of improvement, commonly use nutrition supplements, acupuncture, healthy food, massage, drugs, etc. Hence, patients with CRF could consult their vital physician for an appropriate treatment. Furthermore, several drugs could be chosen to relieve CRF, including anemia drugs, antipsychotics or Astragalus polysaccharides extract.

The objective of this retrospective study is to collect and analyze the medical records of gynecologic cancer patients who who had received chemotherapy with or without prescription drug treatment for cancer-related fatigue in the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology of Tri-Service General Hospital. This study will compare the fatigue improvement profile by different chemotherapy regimens, tumor stage, CRF treatment, etc. and investigate the association between the profile of fatigue improvement and fatigue cluster (weight loss and other symptoms of functional assessment of cancer therapy). This study will also collect blood specimens and analyze the correlation of the cytokine profile and/or immune profile.These results will supply physicians with more understanding about CRF, and help them to enhance the quality on gynecologic cancer care to being perfected in the future.