Differences in symptom occurrence, severity, and distress ratings between patients with gastrointestinal cancers who received chemotherapy alone or chemotherapy with targeted therapy

Gastrointestinal (GI) cancers include the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, large intestine (colon), gall bladder, liver, pancreas, rectum, and anus. While the mortality rates for colon and rectal cancers have decreased over the past two decades, other GI cancers (e.g., pancreas) that do not have reliable screening methods have not seen similar effects (1). The American Cancer Society estimates that 304,930 new cases of GI cancers will be diagnosed in 2016 and approximately half of these patients will die from their disease (1)