Symptom clusters analysis in bone metastases patients using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Bone Metastases Module (EORTC QLQ-BM22)

The objectives were to compare the symptom cluster compositions of radiotherapy and bisphosphonates patients at baseline and to examine whether symptom cluster composition in the bone metastases patient cohort changed over time. We employed principal component analysis (PCA) to extract symptom clusters in data collected from patients with bone metastases using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Bone Metastases Module (QLQ-BM22). A total of 626 patients across 8 countries participated in this study with questionnaires administered to the patients at baseline and follow-up a month later. Radiotherapy and bisphosphonates patients were isolated from the total patient sample and PCA was used to identify clusters in these groups. At baseline, general bone metastases patients had different symptom clusters than those of radiotherapy and bisphosphonates patients. General bone metastases patients rarely had symptom clusters that included both psychosocial and pain symptoms concurrently while radiotherapy and bisphosphonates patients did. At followup, with the exception of bisphosphonates patients, all patients had similar symptom cluster composition with all psychosocial items separated from pain symptoms. Psychosocial items and symptom items of the QLQ-BM22 are more likely to coexist in symptom clusters of radiotherapy and bisphosphonates patients than those of general bone metastases patients. Moreover, treatment from baseline till follow-up seemed to influence most patients to reduce the association of painful symptoms with thoughts or worries about how their illnesses would affect their life; bisphosphonates patients did not experience this effect from treatment however. © Nova Science Publishers, Inc.