Prevalence of Fatigue in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer Submitted to Radio- Chemotherapic Treatment: Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Fatigue is considered a reversible change of biological and psychic functions originated from the organism’s unbalance. In patients with cancer, fatigue is usually reported as one of the most frequent symptoms and is defined as chronic mainly in cases when metastases impair the daily life activities significantly. Objective: This work aimed to evaluate the prevalence of fatigue in patients with head and neck cancer submitted to radiochemotherapy treatment. Method: The standardized methodology was PRISMA and PICO anagram. LILACS, PubMed, Google Scholar and SciELO databases were searched applying the descriptors “fatigue”; “cancer”; “prevalence”; “head and neck cancer. Scientific articles in English published between 2009 and 2019 were included. Five studies have evaluated fatigue isolated occurrence through the questionnaire Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) and variables collected by interviews utilized Piper Fatigue Scale. Results: Of the 243 patients, 70% showed fatigue. In another 13 studies, fatigue has been assessed along with other symptoms by applying questionnaires already validated in literature. There was a significant increase on fatigue scores as well as in quality of life related symptoms, for instance, pain, stress, and depression for the 1,908 patients interviewed. Conclusion: Fatigue’s occurrence in the population of head and neck patients was high and commonly related to other symptoms such as pain, sleep disorders, lack of appetite, dyspnea, emotional stress, and depression.