Cancer-Related Fatigue (Continuing Medical Education) (Report‪)‬

INTRODUCTION Cancer-related fatigue (CRF) is a highly prevalent condition among cancer patients and is defined as a "distressing, persistent, subjective sense of physical, emotional and/or cognitive tiredness or exhaustion related to cancer or cancer treatment that is not proportional to recent activity and interferes with usual functioning" (1). It affects adversely a person's emotional, physical and mental well-being (2, 3). It is distinct from fatigue experienced by healthy individuals in everyday life as it is not relieved by rest or sleep and it is also perceived as being of greater magnitude (3, 4). Even if the definition seems very clear, there are several terminologies used in literature such as asthenia, lethargy and malaise. The most common cited symptoms of CRF include diminished energy, increasing need for rest, limb heaviness, diminished ability to concentrate, decreased interest in engaging in normal activities, sleep disorder, inertia, emotional liability due to fatigue, perceived problems with short-term memory and post-exertional malaise exceeding several hours (5). Nevertheless, CRF is listed as a treatment-induced toxicity in the National Cancer Institute toxicity grading scale and has been accepted as a diagnosis in the International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision (ICD-10). These classifications may enhance awareness of fatigue and improve reporting of the condition as it is often overlooked and underreported as a potentially remediable cause of treatment-related morbidity (6-9).