Distress levels in newly diagnosed, ethnically diverse breast cancer patients

The American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer (CoC) requires psychosocial screening for oncology patients, so the Queen’s Medical Center Cancer Center implemented the National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) distress thermometer (DT). The DT assesses: 1) patient’s rating of distress on a 0-10 scale (higher scores represent higher distress, and 2) variables (e.g. practical, emotional, family, spiritual, and physical) that may contribute to distress. This study was undertaken to explore the relationship between DT scores and demographic, disease, and hospital process variables associated with high distress levels among newly diagnosed breast cancer patients treated at the QMC outpatient cancer center. Through retrospective chart review, the following data was collected: DT variables, demographic data, and disease specific data (e.g. cancer staging), and hospital process data (e.g. referral delays) variables were collected. Inferential statistics were performed to explore associations among the study variables. A total of 33 patients with newly diagnosed breast cancer were identified. Overall mean distress level was 2.97 ± 2.8; and 33.3% reported a distress level ≥ 4. Depression correlated significantly with higher DT scores. Higher mean distress scores were associated with depression, worry, sadness, and nervousness (p ≤ .05). Distress level did not correlated with age, ethnicity, stage of disease, grade, type of cancer treatment, or number of co-morbidities. Recommendations for future research include replication of the study in a larger population and inclusion of other types of cancers in a study that includes male patients