UICC World Cancer Congress 2006

Objective:Cancer and its treatment using chemotherapy or radiotherapy results in considerable fatigue. Fatigue can induce significant stress causing hormonal alteration through hypothalamic pituitary axis leading to change in the internal milleu. We evaluated hormonal profile to find out a putative correlation between hormone & cancer fatigue.

Methods:Fifty two histopathology documented cases of cancer patients were subjected to Pipers Fatigue Score (PFS) and blood test for hormone parameters before and after treatment. Human growth hormone, adenocorticotrophic hormone, thyroid stimulating hormone and serum free cortisol level were evaluated. The individual fatigue scores were correlated with respective hormone levels.

Results:Fifty two cancer patients planned for anticancer therapy completed initial pretreatment evaluation however post treatment assessment was not possible in 8 cases as they died during therapy. There were 20 men and 32 woman in the study with a median age of 50 years (range15-78 years). The primary cancer were in breast (19%), musculoskeletal system (29%), head and neck (19%), gynecological (19%) and miscellaneous sites (14%). The individual fatigue score (Piper Fatigue Score) were behavioral severity (26.6%), affective meaning (28%), sensory (22.2%), cognitive mood (8.8%) and total score (22.2%) respectively. There were significant rise in the fatigue score following chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The serum human growth hormone and cortisol were positively correlated with increased fatigue (Pearson correlation 0.399 and 0.414).

Conclusions: The serum growth hormone and cortisol were affected among cancer patients suffering from higher fatigue.