Lung cancer distress: screening thermometer meta-analysis

The distress is associated with the life quality and prognosis of patients with lung cancer. Distress thermometer (DT) has been widely recommended for distress screening. This study was conducted to summarise the positive rate of distress in patients with lung cancer using DT screenings.

The PubMed, Embase, PsyclNFO and Cochrane Library databases were comprehensively searched to identify all eligible studies published before 31 December 2021. Studies were eligible if they were published in peer-reviewed literature and evaluated distress levels by DT.

Ten eligible studies, including a total of 2111 patients, were included in this analysis, and their methodological quality was moderate. The pooled positive rate of distress in patients with lung cancer was 49.04% (95% CI 41.51% to 56.60%). The subgroup analysis revealed that the distress positive rate was significantly different (p<0.05) across North America, Europe and China with values of 53.33% (95% CI 45.22% to 61.37%), 43.81% (95% CI 31.57% to 56.43%) and 38.57% (95% CI 33.89% to 43.41%), respectively. Moreover, the distress positive rate was significantly different between men and women (p<0.05). Additionally, in terms of histological type, clinical tumour, node, metastasis stage, previous treatment and DT threshold, the distress positive rate had no significant differences. No significant publication bias was identified by Begg's funnel plot and Egger's test.

The summarised distress positive rate was high and was significantly different according to gender and region. DT screening should be recommended for routine clinical practice and more attention should be given towards distress management.