0855 Patient-reported sleep symptoms across four cycles of chemotherapy among adults with lymphoma: A pilot study

Abstract

Introduction Sleep disturbance is one of the primary symptoms reported by cancer survivors before, during, and after treatment. To better understand trajectories of sleep disturbance over the course of chemotherapy, we evaluated patient-reported symptoms among adults being treated for lymphoma. Methods Participants were 18-74 years old, English-speaking, and scheduled to be treated with a full course of anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Among other assessments, participants completed a battery of patient-reported outcome measures prior to the first cycle of chemotherapy (T1) and on the final days of the second (T2) and fourth (T3) cycles. Sleep symptoms were assessed with the Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), PROMIS Sleep Disturbance (PROMIS-SD), and PROMIS Sleep-Related Impairment (PROMIS-SRI) measures. Given the small sample size, descriptives and effect sizes were calculated rather than conducting inferential analyses. Results Participants were 9 adults with Hodgkin’s (n=5) or Non-Hodgkin’s (n=4) lymphoma, mean age 41 years (SD=13.9), mostly male (89%), White (78%), and non-Hispanic (89%). The majority had higher scores on the ISI (85.7%), PROMIS-SD (71.4%), and PROMIS-SRI (71.4%) at T2 than T1, demonstrating more sleep disturbance mid-chemotherapy than prior to chemotherapy. Conversely, the majority had lower scores at T3 than T2 (ISI: 80.0%, PROMIS-SD: 80.0%, PROMIS-SRI: 100.0%), demonstrating less sleep disturbance at late-chemotherapy than mid-chemotherapy. For most participants scores remained higher at T3 than T1 (all 3 measures: 75.0%), indicating more sleep disturbance at late-chemotherapy than pre-chemotherapy. Averaged across participants, differences in scores from T1 to T2 were small-to-medium (ISI: Hedges’ g=0.42, PROMIS-SD: g=0.44, PROMIS-SRI: g=0.62), from T1 to T3 were small (ISI: g=0.26, PROMIS-SD: g=0.26, PROMIS-SRI: g=0.23), and from T2 to T3 were medium-to-large (ISI: g=0.98, PROMIS-SD: g=0.73, PROMIS-SRI: g=0.53). Conclusion Patient-reported sleep symptoms worsened over the first two cycles of anthracycline-based chemotherapy. Symptoms improved over the subsequent two cycles; however, for most participants they remained worse than baseline levels. Pending replication in a larger sample, intervening before initiating chemotherapy or during the early cycles thereof may be beneficial to diminish sleep disturbance among patients with lymphoma. Support (if any) The project described was supported by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center. RSF was supported by NCI grant #K08CA247973. EH was supported by NHLBI grant #K01HL152009.