Cancer‐related fatigue

Although fatigue is one of the most common complaints of patients with cancer, it went unrecognized or overlooked for many years, until clinicians achieved better control over the more acute symptoms of nausea, emesis, and pain. A number of treatment-related and disease-related factors may contribute to the development of fatigue, but its physiologic basis remains poorly understood, and many proposed interventions have not been studied systematically. The lack of a standard of care for the assessment or treatment of fatigue in patients with cancer has limited research in this field. A critical appraisal of these issues is presented in this review.

The published literature was reviewed for definition, prevalence, causes, and means of managing cancer-related fatigue (CRF).