Symptom severity and distress in advanced cancer.

We determined the relationship between symptom severity and distress for multiple cancer symptoms, and examined patient demographic influences on severity and distress in advanced cancer. A Cochran-Armitage trend test determined whether symptom distress increased with severity. Chi-square, Fisher's exact test and logistic regression analysis examined moderate/severe ('clinically important') and distressful symptoms by age (65), gender, primary site group, and ECOG performance status. Forty-six symptoms were analyzed in 181 individuals. More than 50% of individuals with clinically important symptoms rated them as distressful. The median percentage of individuals with mild but still distressful symptoms was 25%, with a range of 0% (bad dreams) to 73% (sore mouth). In both univariate and multivariate analysis, younger (