Observational Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Oct 15, 2022; 14(10): 2025-2037
Published online Oct 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i10.2025
Role of sex on psychological distress, quality of life, and coping of patients with advanced colorectal and non-colorectal cancer
Vilma Pacheco-Barcia, David Gomez, Berta Obispo, Luka Mihic Gongora, Raquel Hernandez San Gil, Patricia Cruz-Castellanos, Mireia Gil-Raga, Vicente Villalba, Ismael Ghanem, Paula Jimenez-Fonseca, Caterina Calderon
Vilma Pacheco-Barcia, Department of Medical Oncology, School of Medicine, Alcala University (UAH), Hospital Central de la Defensa Gómez Ulla, Madrid 28047, Spain
David Gomez, Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital Universitario de Navarra, Pamplona 31008, Spain
Berta Obispo, Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital Universitario Infanta Leonor, Madrid 28031, Spain
Luka Mihic Gongora, Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, Oviedo 33011, Spain
Raquel Hernandez San Gil, Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Tenerife 38320, Spain
Patricia Cruz-Castellanos, Ismael Ghanem, Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital Universitario La Paz, Madrid 28046, Spain
Mireia Gil-Raga, Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital General Universitario de Valencia, CIBERONC, Valencia 46014, Spain
Vicente Villalba, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona 08007, Spain
Paula Jimenez-Fonseca, Department of Medical Oncology, Hospital Universitario Central de Asturias, ISPA, Oviedo 33007, Spain
Caterina Calderon, Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychobiology, University of Barcelona, Barcelona 08007, Spain
Author contributions: Pacheco-Barcia V, Calderon C, and Jimenez-Fonseca P developed the project, analyzed the data, and drafted the manuscript; The other authors recruited patients and provided clinical information, comments, and improvements to the manuscript; All authors participated in the interpretation and discussion of data and the critical review of the manuscript.
Supported by The FSEOM (Spanish Society of Medical Oncology Foundation) grant for Projects of the Collaborative Groups in 2018 and by an Astra Zeneca grant, No. ES2020-1939.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Principality of Asturias (May 17, 2019) and by the Spanish Agency of Medicines and Medical Devices (Identification code: L34LM-MM2GH-Y925U RJDHQ). The study has been performed in accordance with the ethical standards of the 1964 Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. This study is an observational, non-interventionist trial.
Informed consent statement: Signed informed consent was obtained from all patients.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Dr. Pacheco-Barcia reports grants from FSEOM and grants from Astra Zeneca during the conduct of the study; other from Eisai, other from Merck, other from Eli Lilly, other from Advanced accelerator applications, a Novartis company, grants from FSEOM and Merck, other from Roche, other from Eli Lilly, other from Bristol-Myers Squibb, other from Merck, other from Amgen, other from Merck Sharp and Dhome, other from Nutricia, other from Roche, other from Bayer, other from Amgen, other from Esteve, other from Eli Lilly, other from Roche, other from Bristol-Myers Squibb, grants from Ayuda Clínico Formativa AECC 2020, grants from FSEOM, outside the submitted work.
Data sharing statement: This database is available through a centralized web platform: www.neoetic.es. The code is available upon request to the authors. Code availability: Patients are identified by an encrypted code known only to the local researcher. The analysis code is available upon request to the authors.
STROBE statement: The study was undertaken according to the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) guidelines.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Vilma Pacheco-Barcia, MD, MSc, PhD, Associate Professor, Doctor, Department of Medical Oncology, School of Medicine, Alcala University (UAH), Hospital Central de la Defensa Gómez Ulla, Glorieta del Ejercito 1, Madrid 28047, Spain. vilmapbarcia@yahoo.es
Received: April 25, 2022
Peer-review started: April 25, 2022
First decision: May 11, 2022
Revised: May 24, 2022
Accepted: August 25, 2022
Article in press: August 25, 2022
Published online: October 15, 2022
Processing time: 172 Days and 0.5 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Patients with advanced gastrointestinal cancer must cope with the negative effects of cancer and complications. However, data on psychological distress, quality of life, and coping strategies in patients with advanced colorectal cancer compared to non-colorectal cancer based on sex is lacking. This was a multicenter study conducted in 203 patients that completed questionnaires evaluating psychological distress, quality of life, and coping strategies before starting systemic cancer treatment. Based on these data, the degree of disease acceptance in gastrointestinal malignancies may depend on sex and location of the primary digestive neoplasm.