Cancer patients expect many treatment side effects

People facing the prospect of cancer treatment typically expect to suffer numerous side effects - often more than is actually likely - a study suggests.

The survey of 938 cancer patients found that when asked about 12 potential side effects of treatment such as fatigue, nausea and hair loss, patients said they expected to suffer nine of them, on average. Women and patients younger than 60 were particularly likely to expect a high number of side effects.

That patients typically expected so many side effects came as a surprise, according to lead study author Maarten Hofman, a researcher at the University of Rochester Cancer Center in Rochester, New York.

It means that many patients may believe they're destined for more treatment-related problems than they are likely to have, he told Reuters Health. This is important, according to Hofman, because there's evidence that expecting to have a side effect makes it more likely to become a reality.

For example, he noted, some studies suggest that people who expect cancer treatment to nauseate them are indeed more likely to suffer nausea.

Whether the same might be true of other treatment-related symptoms is unknown, and Hofman said more research is needed into the question of how expectations sway actual experience.

It's "probably better," he added, for cancer patients' expectations to be in line with what they're likely to face.

The current study, reported in the journal Cancer, involved patients from 17 oncology practices who answered questions about symptoms they had prior to treatment, and the symptoms they expected to have once they started therapy.

Nearly all patients expected to suffer fatigue during treatment, and 70 percent or more believed they would have to deal with nausea, sleep disturbances, weight and hair loss, skin problems, depression and pain.

Overall, women and younger patients expected more side effects than did men and patients older than 60. If research can paint a "profile" of the patients most likely to have a dim view of how they'll fare during treatment, according to Hofman, doctors could pay particular attention to the side-effect concerns of those patients.

SOURCE: Cancer, August 15, 2004.