Treatment for cancer-related fatigue: an update

Cancer-related fatigue is now a recognized phenomenon with an established diagnosis. Fatigue is the most common symptom experienced by cancer patients and in many cases, the challenge of alleviating its severity is daunting for the clinician. Occasionally, the clinician may be fortunate and discover a reversible cause of fatigue for which there is a readily available treatment. Most of the time, however, the etiology of cancer-related fatigue is multifactorial or treatment-related with unknown pathophysiologic abnormalities and the clinician must resort to a variety of modalities to attempt to relieve the fatigue. Research of cancer-related fatigue treatment is in its infancy and future clinical trials examining the effects of various pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic therapies for cancer-related fatigue are needed. The development of effective therapies for the treatment of cancer-related fatigue could profoundly affect the lives of many cancer patients.