Symptoms, symptom clusters and associated factors among cancer patients receiving immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy: A cross-sectional survey.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to explore the symptoms and symptom clusters and analyse associated factors among cancer patients receiving ICI therapy.

Methods: We analysed the data of 216 cancer patients who received immune checkpoint inhibitor therapy from the internal medicine unit of a university cancer centre in China. Participants were surveyed using the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Score (ECOG PS) assessment, the ICI therapy symptom assessment scale, and demographic and disease characteristic questionnaires designed for this study. Exploratory factor analysis and multiple linear regression analysis were performed to analyse the data.

Results: The most common symptoms in patients with grade 1-2 symptom severity were fatigue (57.4%), itching (34.3%) and cough (33.3%), and those with grade 3-4 symptom severity were rash (7.9%), joint pain (6.9%), muscle soreness (6.5%) and fatigue (6.5%). Four symptom clusters were identified: nonspecific, musculoskeletal, respiratory and cutaneous (the cumulative contribution to the variance was 64.070%). ECOG PS, disease course and gender were significantly associated with the nonspecific symptom cluster (Adj R = 14.3). ECOG PS and disease course were significantly associated with the respiratory symptom cluster (Adj R = 8.9). ECOG PS, disease course and education level were significantly associated with the musculoskeletal symptom cluster (Adj R = 20.2).

Conclusion: Cancer patients receiving ICI therapy experience various symptoms with apparent clustering. The factors associated with symptom clusters included gender, education level, ECOG PS and disease course. These findings would be useful for medical personnel to provide relevant interventions to promote symptom management of ICI therapy.