Distinct Cognitive Function Profiles Are Associated With a Higher Presurgery Symptom Burden in Patients With Breast Cancer.
Yu-Yin Allemann-Su, Marcus Vetter, Helen Koechlin and 7 others
PMID 35439196WHAT IT FOUND
Women with breast cancer who reported poorer attention before surgery also had more anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep problems, and pain interference.
Low attention scores should prompt broader symptom assessment, not assumed to be caused by surgery.
Key findings
01Among 397 patients with breast cancer, three attentional function classes were identified: high (41.6%), moderate (25.4%), and low-moderate (33.0%).
02The low-moderate class had an estimated enrollment attention score of 5.23 on a 0 to 10 scale, compared with 7.78 in the high class.
03Patients in the low-moderate class had higher anxiety, depression, fatigue, sleep disturbance, and pain interference scores than the other classes.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Most participants were well educated and had early-stage breast cancer, so the results may not apply to patients with advanced disease or different backgrounds. Attention and working memory were measured by self-report, not objective testing, and the scale focuses mainly on attention and executive function. No healthy control group was included, so the study compares breast cancer patients with different profiles rather than patients with non-cancer peers. The analysis is observational, so it cannot show that symptoms caused poor attention or that treating symptoms will improve attention.
Declared interests
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that poor attention caused the higher symptom burden or that treating symptoms will improve attention. This was an observational analysis, so it shows association, not cause.