Abstract:

Objective To investigate cancerrelated fatigue （CRF）， anxiety and depression in breast cancer patients and explore the relationship between CRF and the status of anxiety and depression. Methods A convenience sample of 200 breast cancer patients completed a structured questionnaire covering participants’ demographic characteristics， the Chinese version of revised Piper fatigue scale and the hospital anxiety and depression scale. Data analysis was performed by SPSS 17.0 software. ResultsIn 200 patients of breast cancer after operation， 109 patients （54.5％） experienced varying degrees of CRF， and the mean score for general fatigue was 4.38±1.27. The scores of behavior／severity dimension， emotion dimension， feel dimension and cognitive／emotional dimension were 3.73±1.67， 5.06±1.84， 4.39±1.60 and 4.38±1.35. “To what degree is the fatigue you are feeling now interfering with your ability to engage in sexual activity?”， “To what degree would you describe the fatigue which you are experiencing now as being?”， “To what degree are you now feeling weak” and “To what degree are you now feeling unable to remember” got the highest score in those dimensions. In 109 CRF patients， 24 cases （31.2％） companied by anxiety， 45 cases （41.3％） by depression， and 27 cases （24.8％） were associated with both anxiety and depression. CRF in patients with anxiety and depression onset was significantly more than the number of patients with noncancer related fatigue （P＜0.001）. The scores during the four dimensions of fatigue showed significant difference between the patients with the anxiety， depression and the patients without anxiety or depression（P＜0.05）. Conclusion Most breast cancer patients experienced CRF with light to medium degree. Anxiety and depression affect CRF. The cause and the treatment of CRF needs further study.