Prevalence of emotional distress in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients.

Goals Of Work: Distress is defined by the National Comprehensive Cancer Network as a multifactorial unpleasant emotional experience of a psychological, social, and/or spiritual nature that may interfere with the ability to cope effectively with cancer. We investigated the prevalence and associated symptoms of distress in newly diagnosed lung cancer patients.

Patients And Methods: Between November 2005 and July 2007, 98 newly diagnosed lung cancer patients completed an assessment.

Prognostic value of the six-minute walk in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

Background: The 6 minute walk (6MW) is usually used to evaluate exercise capacity in a variety of patient populations. We hypothesized that the 6MW would decline after chemotherapy and assessed the prognostic value of this test.

Materials And Methods: The 6MW was conducted in newly diagnosed advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients on three different days: twice before (one initial and one prechemotherapy test) and once after two cycles of chemotherapy.