Cancer Caregiver Fatigue: A High Level of Symptom Burden

Fatigue is the problematic symptom identified by cancer patients. However, fatigue has not been widely examined for caregivers of cancer patients. In this project, 131 caregivers of patients diagnosed with advanced stage cancer and actively receiving radiotherapy reported experiencing the most difficulties with fatigue (mean 46.9; on a 0 to 100 scale, with a 10-point difference having clinical meaning) at baseline and at a six-month follow-up (mean 48.3). This is in sharp contrast to other domains of quality of life and functioning being rated in the 60s, 70s and 80s by the cancer caregivers. Given the level of fatigue reported by the cancer caregivers, if confirmed by other investigators in larger and more diverse samples, interventions targeting caregiver fatigue should be explored.