Abstract CN57
Background
The number of patients with both cancer and diabetes is rising. Hyperglycaemia is the hallmark sign of diabetes, and cancer patients with pre-existing diabetes have an increased risk for hyperglycaemic events while undergoing cancer treatment. The purpose of this study was to assess a) the symptom severity of lung cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy and b) the influence of HbA1c in symptom severity.
Methods
This was a cross-sectional study conducted in a large oncology hospital in a major city in Northern Greece. It involved a convenience sample consisting of 43 lung cancer patients with type 2 diabetes undergoing cycle 3. Data was collected using the Memorial Symptom of Assessment Scale (MSAS) and a questionnaire to determine the demographic and clinical characteristics.
Results
The majority of patients were men (n = 26, 70.3%) and their mean age was 68.06 ± 1.36 years. The mean of the Global Distress Index was 1.87 ± 0.83, the mean number of symptoms was 22.41 ± 8.03, and the mean scores of the Psychological Symptoms (PSYCH) and Physical symptoms (PHYS) subscales were 1.80 ± 0.66 and 1.94 ± 0.90 respectively. Specifically, the most severe symptoms were pain (2.59 ± 1.22), lack of energy (2.39 ± 1.32), vomiting (2.05 ± 1.43), shortness of breath (2.28 ± 1.39), worrying (2.04 ± 1.55). To investigate the clinical factors (HbA1c, HDL, LDL, etc) that affected the patients’ scores in the MSAS, a series of t tests for independent samples and one-way ANOVAs were implemented. No statistically significant differences were detected in most of the variables. However, patients over 70 years had a higher score in the PSYCH subscale than their younger counterparts (2.08 ± 0.85 vs 1.49 ± 0.81, t(34) = -2.13, p = 0.04, d = 0.71). The Pearson correlation analysis between the HbA1c and total MSAS score showed that there was a negative correlation between them (r = -.841, p < .033) and a negative correlation between the HbA1c and Global Distress Index (r = -.849, p < .036).
Conclusions
This study is the first to evaluate the associations between HbA1c and symptom severity in Greek lung cancer patients with type 2 diabetes receiving chemotherapy. There is a significant need for further research in this field to clarify the relationships uncovered.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
The authors.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.