Using the symptom distress thermometer (SDT) in patients with breast cancer to identify psychosocial supportive needs.

200Background: Psychological distress is common among cancer patients. In order to optimize patient care there is a need to understand the type of patient problems contributing to distress. SDT is a well-recognized tool for assessing distress in 5 broad problem categories including, practical, family, emotional, spiritual/religious, and physical (NCCN distress guidelines: Cancer 2005). The objective of this study was to evaluate categories of distress commonly experienced by breast cancer patients undergoing radiation therapy (RT). Methods: This is a retrospective study on patient symptoms of distress as recorded on SDT surveys. Patients completing SDT have the opportunity to score distress on a scale of 0-10 and list the category of distress. For the purpose of this study, we defined low distress score to be ≤ 3, and high distress score of ≥ 4 requiring referral/intervention. Patient population included 121 patients receiving a 3-6 week course of breast RT and who completed ≥ 2 weekly surveys during ther...