The influence of symptom clusters and the most distressing concerns regarding quality of life among patients with inoperable lung cancer

PurposeTo explore the influence of symptom clusters and the most distressing concerns on global rating of quality of life (QoL) among patients with inoperable lung cancer (LC) over a three-month period following diagnosis.MethodsData were derived from a longitudinal study dealing with the symptom experiences of 400 patients with LC at three time points: close to diagnosis and one and three months later. The symptom clusters were derived from a QoL questionnaire using factor analysis, which resulted in three clusters: the Respiratory cluster, the Pain cluster and the Mood cluster. The most distressing concerns were derived from responses to a free listing question (‘What is most distressing at present’) and were categorised under three dimensions: Bodily distress, Life situation with LC and Iatrogenic distress. Cross-sectional, multivariate regression analyses with QoL as a dependent variable were used to determine predictors (symptom clusters and most distressing concerns) at the three time points.ResultsAll three symptom clusters predicted QoL at each time point. Close to diagnosis, none of the dimensions of most distressing concerns predicted QoL, while the dimension Bodily distress was a significant predictor of QoL after one month. The Life situation with LC dimension was a significant predictor of QoL three months after diagnosis.ConclusionsSymptom clusters are important to LC patients' QoL and need to be acknowledged by healthcare professionals. The present study shows the importance of patients' descriptions of key concerns, which vary from diagnosis onwards, and urges healthcare professionals to be vigilant to such changes.