Temporal Profiles of Symptom Scores after Palliative Radiotherapy for Bleeding Gastric Cancer with the Adjustment for the Palliative Prognostic Index: An Exploratory Analysis of a Multicenter Prospective Observational Study (JROSG 17-3)

Shortness of breath, pain and distress improved after radiotherapy. Moreover, a higher PPI was significantly associated with higher symptom scores at all time points, including baseline. In contrast, PPI did not seem to influence the improvement of these symptoms. Regardless of the expected survival, patients receiving radiotherapy for gastric cancer can expect an improvement in shortness of breath, pain and distress over 8 weeks. Multiple-fraction radiotherapy might hamper the improvement in fatigue and distress by its toxicity or treatment burden.