Patient Reported Distress And Survival After Palliative Radiotherapy

e18084Background: Patient reported distress (PRD) is well recognized in cancer patients receiving treatment; regrettably, it is not always assessed in clinical practice. The failure to assess PRD might affect treatment, decrease patient’s quality of life (QoL), increase burden of suffering, and increases health care costs. Patients receiving palliative RT usually have a severe disease that requires an intervention to help ease symptom burden, especially pain. Methods: All RT patients in our clinic are asked to complete a PRD survey during treatment course. PRD forms consist of 30 categorical questions that assess distress subscales. Patients have the option to rate each question from 1 (low distress) to 5 (high distress). The survey also includes the National Comprehensive Cancer Network distress thermometer, which allows patients to rate overall distress level from 0 (no distress) to 10 (extreme distress). Patients’ records were retrospectively reviewed to abstract the needed information to assess surviv...