Cancer patients experience several symptoms throughout their illness and the treatments they receive. While this pathology represents a worldwide health problem, knowing the symptom prevalence in oncology patients remains a challenge; validated tools to obtain this information are essential. Furthermore, this prevalence information would help health professionals to establish appropriate treatments. The objective of this study was to ascertain the symptom prevalence in cancer patients from Spain and Colombia to improve future approaches. The frequency, severity, and distress of 32 symptoms from a validated scale experienced by cancer patients from Spain and Colombia were measured. Two hundred and forty-six patients (49.7%) who attended the Day University Hospital of Salamanca (Spain) and two hundred and forty-nine outpatients (50.3%) of the San Diego Cancer Center (Colombia) between 2016 and 2019 participated in the study. All patients filled in the Assessment Scale only once. Four hundred and ninety-five patients (333 women (67.3%) and 162 men (32.7%)) completed the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale (Spanish version). The most frequent symptom for both samples (Spanish and Colombian) was "lack of energy" (38.4% and 13.7%, respectively). The most severe symptoms for the Spanish and Colombian samples were "problems with sexual interest or activity" (38.4%) and "dry mouth" (13.7%), respectively, and both samples agreed on the most distressing symptom: "hair loss" (Spanish, 38%; Colombian, 10.1%). The Spanish version of the MSAS has proven to be a valid and reliable tool in Spanish-speaking countries to obtain the most prevalent, severe, and distressing symptoms in Spanish and Colombian oncology patients. The prevalence of symptoms was demonstrated to be similar across both countries, and the results will help to design and adapt treatments for cancer patients, targeting these symptoms to reduce or avoid them and thus improving their quality of life.
Keywords: Colombia; Spain; cancer; prevalence; reliability; symptom.