Abstract 1496P
Background
The aim of this study was to explore the potential relationship between the time estimation and psychological distress in patients with solid tumors before starting radiotherapy.
Methods
A total of 344 (179 male and 165 female) patients with solid tumors were included prior to starting radiotherapy in MHAT Uni Hospital Panagyuriste, Bulgaria. The time estimation was assessed by evaluating each subject’s prospective estimation of how fast 1 min passed compared to the actual time. The median value (35sec) of subjective perception of time was used to group cases into two categories - as faster (≤ median) and slower (>median) experience of time. Patients with metastatic disease were 156 (84 male and 72 female) and 188 (95 male and 93 female) with nonmetastatic. We used the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Distress Thermometer at the beginning of treatment to determine the levels of distress, where it measures distress on a scale from 0 to 10. Patients scoring 4 or above (73.5%) were regarded as having high levels of distress.
Results
The pattern of the time estimation distributions significantly changed according to the level of distress. Female patients with a fast time estimation and metastatic disease had significantly higher levels of distress than the rest of the patients. ROC analysis revealed that at the optimal cut off value of time estimation, patients with low and high distress levels can be discriminated with an AUC = 0.73 (95% CI: 0.53–0.67, p < 0.001) and with a sensitivity of 75.9% and specificity of 65.8%. Moreover, in a multivariate logistic regression model, fast time estimation was an independent predictor of high levels of distress (OR 2.9; 95% CI,1.51-5.58).
Conclusions
Time estimation is a novel potent indicator of high levels of distress in cancer patients prior to starting radiotherapy.
Clinical trial identification
Editorial acknowledgement
Legal entity responsible for the study
K. Zhelev.
Funding
Has not received any funding.
Disclosure
All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.