Fatigue in patients with head and neck cancer undergoing radiation therapy: a prospective study.
Juliana Maria de Paula Avelar, Adriana Cristina Nicolussi, Bruna Francielle Toneti and 2 others
PMID 31432921WHAT IT FOUND
Fatigue scores rose from baseline to mid and end of radiation therapy in 60 head and neck cancer patients.
The increase included behavioural, affective and sensory/psychological domains. Screen for fatigue throughout treatment, not only at diagnosis.
Key findings
01Fatigue rose from baseline to mid-treatment and end of radiation therapy.
02The rise was significant for global fatigue and for behavioural, affective and sensory/psychological domains.
03Only the control group was analysed, so the paper describes fatigue over time rather than testing an intervention.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Only the control group was analysed, so the paper does not test whether relaxation, guided imagery or any other intervention changed fatigue. Patients were not randomised in the original project; allocation was convenience-based and the sample was 60 patients from one centre in Brazil. The study did not separate the effects of radiation therapy from surgery, disease stage, alcohol use or cigarette use. The text describes the affective domain as similar at middle and end, but the comparison table reports a significant difference for that domain, so domain-specific conclusions need caution.
Declared interests
The supplied text reports funding from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP), grant #2013/04146-1. It was extracted from a doctoral dissertation in an Escola de Enfermagem. No author conflicts of interest are stated in the supplied text.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read the increase in fatigue as proof that radiation therapy alone caused it or that a specific intervention worked. Only the control group was analysed, no randomisation was used, and 29 of the 60 patients also had surgery.