title: Symptoms experienced by cancer patients and barriers to symptom management.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  People living with cancer experience wide variety of symptoms. If symptoms are not managed well, it may hamper an individual's ability to continue his or her activities of daily life. Treatment of symptoms relieves suffering and improves the rate of recovery as well as the quality of life.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To assess the symptoms of suffering among cancer patients and to identify the perceived barriers to their symptom management.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional study was carried out among 768 cancer patients selected by stratified sampling with a proportionate selection from each stratum. Data were collected from cancer patients by interview technique using structured validated questionnaire.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Majority of the samples (30.2%) belonged to the age group of 51-60 years, most of them were diagnosed with head and neck cancer (40.1%) and 57.7% had stage III disease. The majority of the patients studied had pain (77%), tiredness (96.5%), disturbed sleep (96.4%), weight loss (63.3%), and irritability (85.7%). Most of the patients had lack of appetite (89.4%), feeling of sadness (96.6%), worry (94.5%), and feeling of nervousness (82.8%). Majority of the patients had some misconception regarding symptoms, that is, increasing pain signifies disease progression (92.7%), medicine to control pain may weaken the immune system (89.9%) and pain is inevitable for cancer patients (78.5%). Seventy-seven percent of samples reported that the anxiety or depression is expected after the diagnosis of cancer.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study provides an overview of symptoms among cancer patients and barriers experienced by them.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Malathi G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.affiliation: Head of the Institution, Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Anice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: George
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiotherapy and Oncology, Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: M S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Vidyasagar
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Stanley
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Mathew
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Sudhakar
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.affiliation: Department of Child Health Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Baby S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Nayak
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Nursing, Manipal College of Nursing, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Y N
authors.initials: YN
authors.lastname: Shashidhara
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Kasturba Medical College Hospital, Manipal University, Manipal, Karnataka, India.
authors.forename: Asha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kamath
keywords: Barriers; Cancer patients; Symptoms