International Journal of Clinical Research

Objective To explore the composition and correlation of symptom clusters in patients with primary liver cancer treated with HAIC, clarify the core symptoms within the cluster, and provide reference for clinical symptom strategy management. Methods Convenience sampling was used to select 130 HAIC treated patients as the research subjects. A questionnaire survey was conducted on patients using a general information questionnaire, the Chinese version of the Anderson Symptom Assessment Scale, and a primary liver cancer specific symptom module. Exploratory factor analysis was used to extract symptom clusters, and JASP software was used to draw network analysis graphs and indicator graphs of each symptom center to analyze the relationships between symptoms within the cluster. Results The results of the intensity centrality correlation showed fatigue (r=0.92), abdominal pain (r=0.88), and nausea (r=0.85). The accuracy test results showed that the correlation coefficient between the edge weights of the network structure and the original data was r=0.93, P<0.001. Sample five symptom clusters based on specific symptom details (pain, gastrointestinal tract, sleep mood, symptoms, HAIC). After analysis, it can be seen that walking has the highest density and intensity, and the mediation degree of sleep disorders is the highest. Conclusion During HAIC treatment, patients have multiple symptom clusters, with pain being the core symptom of the HAIC symptom cluster. The emotional sleep symptom cluster serves as a bridge, reducing the impact of the core symptom on the patient's physical and mental health to improve other surrounding symptoms. From the perspective of symptom clusters, symptom management can be implemented to improve the patient's quality of life.

Primary liver cancer; HAIC; Symptom group; Symptom management; Network analysis