Abstract: Objective: To explore the symptom subgroups of postoperative chemotherapy patients with gastric cancer and analyze the relationship between each subgroup and unmet needs. Methods: Totally 249 postoperative patients with gastric cancer who received chemotherapy in the oncology department of two hospitals in Zhenjiang city from August to December 2021 were selected as the research objects by convenient sampling method. The general data questionnaire, the symptom evaluation questionnaire of postoperative chemotherapy patients with gastric cancer and the unmet needs scale of cancer patients were used for investigation. Results: The incidence and severity of fatigue in postoperative chemotherapy patients with gastric cancer were the highest, and the score of unmet needs was 49.10 ± 14.12. The symptoms of patients were divided into four groups: mild symptoms, high psychological symptoms and low physical symptoms, high physical symptoms and low psychological symptoms, and severe symptoms. Chemotherapy cycle, operation mode and malnutrition risk could predict the subgroup classification (all P<0.05). There was significant difference in the scores of unmet needs among different symptom subgroups (P<0.05). The score of severe symptoms group was the highest, followed by high psychological symptoms and low physical symptoms, the third was high physical symptoms and low psychological symptoms, and the lowest was mild symptoms group. Conclusion: The symptom characteristics of postoperative chemotherapy patients with gastric cancer have four subgroups, which are closely related to unmet needs, suggesting that targeted interventions should be formulated for different subgroups to alleviate symptom distress, so as to meet the individual needs of patients.

Key words: gastric cancer; chemotherapy; symptom; unmet need; predictor; latent profile analysis