Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale may reduce medical visits in patients undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer

Table 1 Clinicopathological characteristics of the study population

Characteristic	Group A (ESAS) (n = 100)	Group B (No-ESAS) (n = 100)	P value
Age (mean ± SD)	57.7 ± 11.5	56.6 ± 12.4	0.524
Age groups, n (%)			0.880
≤ 60 yr	64 (64)	62 (62)
> 60 yr	36 (36)	38 (38)
Premenopausal status	51 (51)	34 (34)	0.015
Breast cancer stage, n (%)
I	44 (44)	36 (36)	0.506
II	28 (28)	31 (31)
III	28 (28)	33 (33)
Cancer histology, n (%)
Ductal	84 (84)	88 (88)	0.415
Lobular	16 (16)	12 (12)
Tumour size (mean ± SD) , n (%)			0.258
≤ 2 cm	52 (52)	44 (44)
> 2 cm	48 (48)	56 (56)
Lymph node status, n (%)			0.883
N0	66 (66)	59 (59)
N+	34 (34)	41 (41)
Himmunohistochemical classification, n (%)			0.754
Luminal A	12 (12)	8 (8)
Luminal B	21 (21)	25 (25)
HER2 positive	55 (55)	54 (54)
TNBC	12(12)	13 (13)
Type of surgery, n (%)			0.157
BCS	58 (58)	48 (48)
Mastectomy	42 (42)	52 (52)

ESAS: Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale; BCS: Breast-conserving surgery.

Table 2 Outcomes of interest during the chemotherapy treatment in the study population

Variable	Group A (ESAS)	Group B (No ESAS)
N of doctor visit scheduled for each patient	3	16
Total No. of scheduled doctor visits	300	1600
N of patients requiring adjunctive visit on the bases of ESAS score > 3	48	-
N of adjunctive visits on the bases of ESAS score > 3	130	-
N of patients requiring unplanned doctor visits	6	12
N of unplanned doctor visit	8	18
Effective total No. of doctor visitsa	438	1618
N of visits for each patient (mean ± SD)b	4.38 ± 0.51	16.18 ± 1.82
Adverse effects during chemotherapy treatment	2	3

^aP < 0.001.

^bP < 0.001. ESAS: Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale.

Table 3 Multivariate logistic regression for factors associated with the need of additional medical visits before chemotherapy in patients the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale Group (Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale score > 3)

Variable	Odds ratio	St. Error	Z-score	95%CI	P value
Age
> 60 (n = 36)	4.93	0.695	1.596	1.26-19.25	0.022a
≤ 60 (n = 64)	Ref.
Lymph node status
Positive (n = 44)	0.50	0.662	0.691	0.13-1.83	0.297
Negative (n = 66)	Ref.
Type of surgery
Mastectomy (n = 42)	0.15	0.726	-1.895	0.03-0.62	0.009b
BCS (n = 58)	Ref.
IHC classification
Luminal (n = 33)	1.96	0.699	0.674	0.49-7.73	0.335
Non-Luminal (n = 67)	Ref.
Tumour stage
I (n = 44)	0.86	0.880	0.149	1.12-35.44	0.036c
II/III (n = 56)	Ref.

^aP < 0.05.

^bP < 0.05.

^cP < 0.05. BCS: Breast-conserving surgery.