Addressing Fatigue as an Adverse Event in Ovarian and Uterine Cancers

Hanneke Poort, PhD, an instructor at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical School, discusses research regarding fatigue as an adverse event (AE) in patients with gynecologic cancer.

Fatigue is one of the most common and debilitating treatment-related AEs, explains Poort. However, few studies have examined the course of fatigue over time and whether it resolves with intervention. In the study, investigators looked at data from 312 women with ovarian or endometrial cancer. Nearly half of patients reported clinically significant fatigue after initial surgical treatment and prior to the start of additional treatment, says Poort. The fatigue did not resolve after 12 months of follow-up, adds Poort.

The most pertinent factors that contributed to clinically significant and persistent fatigue were fatigue at baseline and depressive symptoms. There are interventions focusing on psychologic factors that have been shown to help reduce fatigue, but these studies have not focused on women with gynecologic cancers, according to Poort. Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute is currently adapting cognitive behavior therapy that was previously tested in a large group of patients with advanced ovarian cancer who received PARP inhibitors, concludes Poort.