ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S568

Clinical - Breast

ESTRO 2024

Purpose/Objective:

Sleep disturbance is one of the commonest symptoms experienced by cancer patients across all stages of the disease and during all phases of treatment. Research has shown that as many as 61% of patients experience difficulties with sleep, which in turn negatively impacts on health-related quality of life factors including fatigue, mood, pain sensitivity, cognitive functioning and physical activity. In 2019 a systematic review concluded that improving sleep disturbance in breast cancer patients can reduce depressive symptoms and anxiety, leading to an improved adherence to cancer therapies and improvements in patients’ understanding of treatment and physical symptoms.

This research aimed to investigate the prevalence of sleep disturbance amongst the breast cancer population within our cancer centre and evaluate its impact on patients’ quality of life.

Material/Methods:

Between 1st June to 31st August 2023, breast cancer patients were invited to complete a sleep questionnaire developed from validated surveys. Data was collected prospectively with a total of 52 responses.

Results:

The study cohort comprised of 18 patients with early breast cancer and 33 with metastatic disease; one participant did not disclose their disease status. 100% of respondents were female and the median age of participants was 58 years (range 37-79).

52% of patients (27/52) reported trouble sleeping with the majority (22/27) experiencing symptoms for more than 3 months.

Of the participants who reported sleep disturbance, 30% (8/27) expressed a wish to discuss treatment options to improve sleeping patterns, whilst a larger proportion, 68% (17/27), were ‘not sure’ or preferred not to discuss potential treatment with their oncology team. In breast cancer patients who did not report sleeping difficulties, 48% (12/25) reported fatigue, 20% (5/25) experienced poor concentration and 12% (3/25) described mood disturbances. In contrast, of the respondents who did report sleep disturbance a greater proportion reported symptoms of fatigue (81% (22/27)), poor concentration (52% (14/27)), and mood disturbance ((37% (10/27)). Where difficulty in sleeping was encountered, 86% (23/27) of patients had not been offered treatment by a healthcare professional, at the time of this questionnaire. The remaining 14% (4/27) had been offered treatment in the community by their General Practitioner.

Conclusion:

The dataset collected confirms the high prevalence of sleep disturbance amongst our breast cancer population, in keeping with the current literature. In our cohort, patients with poor sleep had higher rates of fatigue, poor