Fatigue in cancer patients compared with fatigue in the general United States population

Although anemia is clearly a factor that contributes to the severity of disease-related fatigue among cancer patients, hemoglobin levels explain only part of the difference compared with fatigue among the general United States population. The distinct distributions of fatigue scores of anemic cancer patients compared with the general United States population and the substantial sample sizes of these two groups enabled a discriminant analysis approach that allowed the differentiation of anemic cancer patients from the general population with high sensitivity (0.92) and reasonable specificity (0.69). Thus, although fatigue is a symptom most anyone can relate to, the fatigue of cancer patients, particularly those who are anemic, is decidedly worse. Interventions targeting this common and life-disrupting symptom likely would be of considerable value to patients with cancer.