Changing symptom burden in cancer patients: Does physician-patient communication cover physical, psychological and social discomfort? A Survey among 2009 German patients.

e17717 Background: Progress in supportive cancer care has been made followed by a change in burden experienced by patients. Using a list of such burdening factors from physical, psychological and social context, we investigated which of those most affects quality of life of cancer patients. We also evaluated how satisfied patients are with the attention these factors receive in physician-patient communication. Methods: Patients from 22 oncology centers in Germany were asked to provide information about basic demographics, their disease and treatment, and a simple scoring of their physical, psychological and social burden (17 items) along with the attention these factors receive in physician-patient communication. Data were collected and descriptively analyzed. Results: Questionnaires from 2009 patients were collected (mean age: 61.4y, 57.8% female). Most frequent malignancies were breast (442), colorectal (246), lymphomas (123) and lung cancer (116). Most patients (83.3%) were under treatment and half of ...