Can a symptom checklist improve the triage of patients following successful endometrial cancer treatment?

Abstract

Endometrial cancer (EC) is the fifth most common cancer in women in developed countries. Clinical practice guidelines recommend patients should be followed-up every 3–6 months after primary treatment of EC. Evidence suggests that 40% to 80% of patients develop symptoms prior to being diagnosed with EC recurrence, however which symptoms are key remains unclear. We previously conducted a comprehensive literature review and developed a questionnaire on patient-reported symptoms associated with EC recurrence.This is a brief communication on a pilot prospective cohort study among 120 Australian patients who completed primary treatment for EC in the past three years. The study showed 47 of the 120 patients (39.2%) self-reported at least one symptom, four of whom (3.3%) were diagnosed with a recurrence. Back or lumbar pain (P = 0.012), vaginal bleeding (P < 0.001), and lethargy, fatigue, exhaustion or tiredness (P = 0.002) were significantly associated with the development of EC recurrence.The checklist will be further validated as part of a randomized controlled clinical trial to confirm the observed relationship between symptoms and the development of EC recurrence.

Keywords

• Endometrial cancer
• Endometrial cancer recurrence
• Symptom checklist