Distress in soft‐tissue sarcoma and gastrointestinal stromal tumours patients—Results of a German multicentre observational study (PROSa)

Abstract

Objective: Soft tissue sarcomas (STS) and gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GIST) are a group of rare malignant tumours with a high and heterogenous disease burden.As evidence is scarce, we analysed the prevalence of increased emotional distress and identified distress-associated factors in these patients. Methods:The PROSa-study (Burden and medical care of sarcoma) was conducted between 2017 and 2020 in 39 study centres. Cross-sectional data from adult STS and GIST patients were analysed. Distress was measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-4). The relation of socioeconomic and clinical factors with distress was explored in adjusted logistic regression models.Results: Among 897 patients, 17% reported elevated anxiety and 19% reported depression. Unemployed patients (odds ratio [OR] 6.6; 95% CI 2.9-15.0), and those with a disability pension (OR 3.1; 95% CI 1.9-5.0) were more likely to experience distress compared to employed patients. Also, patients with a disability pass had higherThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Fear, anxiety and depression in gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients in the Netherlands: Data from a cross-sectional multicenter study

“…In a study among Mexican GIST patients, 31% of the 89 patients experienced psychological distress, which was associated with higher levels of fatigue, lower quality of life and functioning ( Carbajal-López et al., 2022 ). In a German study, 22% of the GIST patients experienced anxiety or depression ( Eichler et al., 2022 ). Moreover, in this study GIST and other sarcoma patients were analyzed together, showing disabled persons, patients in precarious employment, newly diagnosed patients and those with progressive disease should be considered as vulnerable groups for developing anxiety or depression.…”

Rückkehr in das Erwerbsleben nach Krebs – eine systematische Übersichtsarbeit zu Prädiktoren in Deutschland

“…RTW nach einer Krebsdiagnose ist sowohl persönlich für einzelne Krebsbetroffene als auch die Gesellschaft überaus relevant. Für Krebsbetroffene selbst und ihre Angehörigen kann der Wegfall von Einkommen durch einen Jobverlust oder ein reduziertes Einkommen durch eine frühzeitige Berentung erhebliche finanzielle Sorgen verursachen [11][12][13][14]. Neben diesem finanziellen Aspekt hat der Beruf eine wichtige Bedeutung für die eigene Identität, die Strukturierung des Alltages, die soziale und gesellschaftliche Teilhabe und für die Rückkehr zur Normalität nach der Erkrankung [15,16].…”