Pain, depressive symptoms, and fatigue are common problems in patients with cancer. Despite numerous instruments having been developed to assess these symptoms, optimal and standardized methods for the assessment of these symptoms in clinical practice have not been determined. Even in areas where efficacious treatment options exist, there are few high- quality randomized trials to guide the selection of optimal treatment alternative.
Additional studies are needed to measure the prevalence and impact of these symptoms in cancer, to determine the clinical significance of these measurements, and to define factors that correlate with these symptoms. For cancer-related fatigue, current treatment options are limited unless reversible factors contributing to fatigue can be identified and corrected.
For all of the topics examined in this evidence report, there is a paucity of studies in the pediatric population and research in children is urgently needed to address the symptoms of pain, depression, and fatigue.