title: Symptom burden and medication use in adult sarcoma patients.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Limited data are available on how symptom burden affects health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with sarcoma. This study aims to describe the symptom burden, HRQoL, and medication use in adult sarcoma patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  A single-center, cross-sectional study was conducted, and 79 patients were evaluated using three tools: the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist (RSCL), the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy scale-General (FACT-G). Patients' demographic and clinical information, medication history, and use of concomitant medications were recorded. The proportion of patients with clinically significant RSCL score for a particular symptom was compared with the percentage of patients receiving medication for that symptom.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The mean age was 57.3 ± 15.2 years, with majority of the patients diagnosed with stromal tumor (46.8 %), leiomyosarcoma (15.2 %), and liposarcoma (10.1 %). The most prevalent physical symptoms experienced were tiredness (2.38 ± 1.00), lack of energy (2.04 ± 1.02), and difficulty sleeping (2.00 ± 1.15). The most common psychological symptoms experienced were irritability (1.92 ± 1.01), worrying (1.86 ± 0.90), and anxiety (1.68 ± 0.74). Few (6.3 %) patients received hypnotics while 33.0 % of patients reported difficulty sleeping. A proportion of patients (27.9 %) reported experiencing lack of appetite with only 1.3 % received appetite stimulants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adult sarcoma patients experience significant physiological and psychological symptom burden, which has a strong negative impact on HRQoL, with a number of physiological symptoms undertreated with pharmacotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Science, National University of Singapore, 18 Science 4, Block S4, Singapore, 117543, Singapore, phaac@nus.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Alexandre
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Chan
authors.forename: Eunice
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Terence
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ng
authors.forename: Vivianne
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Shih
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Quek
authors.forename: Yin Ting
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Cheung
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000523:psychology; D001066:Appetite; D017281:Cost of Illness; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005221:Fatigue / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D012509:Sarcoma / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D055815:Young Adult