A screening tool identifies high distress in newly diagnosed breast cancer patients.

Background: Many breast cancer patients and survivors experience clinically significant distress, which poses a danger to both their psychologic and clinical well-being. Improved understanding of the types of distress that patients experience at the time of breast cancer diagnosis may reveal areas for intervention to improve quality of life and long-term outcomes.

Methods: We retrospectively evaluated newly diagnosed breast cancer patients who completed a cancer distress screening tool at their initial multidisciplinary clinic visit. The screening tool, which has not yet been validated, asked patients to rate their distress and identify specific concerns related to emotional, social, health, and practical distress. To evaluate predictors of distress, patient characteristics were collected through review of the electronic medical record.

Results: The study population consisted of 379 patients. The number of patients experiencing high distress varied by domain: emotional (66.5%), social (25.1%), health (57.8%), and practical (36.4%). With the exception of marital status, no demographic, clinical, or pathologic factors were found to be significantly associated with distress in any domain.

Conclusion: Breast cancer patients experience significant distress at the time of initial diagnosis. Additional investigation assessing modifiable contributors to distress and developing clinical interventions to decrease distress from the time of diagnosis throughout treatment is needed to improve quality of life in this patient population.