To compare the evaluation result of 10 symptoms including poor appetite in cancer patients during chemotherapy from the patients and their nurses, in order to improve the assessment and judgment ability of the responsible nurses on the symptoms of patients undergoing chemotherapy through the analysis of the result.

The study was performed in the chemotherapy unit of a cancer ClassⅢ Grade A hospital in Beijing. By convenience sampling, a total of 192 patients undergoing chemotherapy from October 2017 to January 2018 and the nurses (n=16) who were primarily responsible for their care were selected as participants. Symptom assessments were completed by the use of the Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) .

Patients and nurses showed poor agreement in Depression, Anxiety and Shortness of breath (ICC<0.4) and moderate agreement (0.4≤ICC<0.75) in other symptoms. Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to compare the results of symptom assessment between patients and responsible nurses. Among the 10 entries in ESAS, there was no statistical difference between the results in poor quality of life (Z=-1.627, P=0.104) , however, there were statistical differences in all the rest 9 entries (P<0.05) among which the nurses scored higher than the patients in the entry of anxiety and depression.

Responsible nurses' perception on physical symptoms was better than that of psychological symptoms, and there was overestimation and underestimation in the severity of symptoms. It is necessary for the nurses to teach the patients how to use standard assessment tools and through health education, raise the patients' awareness of reporting their symptoms.

Neoplasms; Chemotherapy, adjuvant; Symptom assessment; Edmonton Symptom Assessment System