Saira Waqqar, Aroosa Abbas, Anum Shehzadi, Faha Ahmed.
Quality of life among breast cancer patients during chemotherapy.
J Riphah Coll Rehab Sci Jan ;6(1):33-7.

Background: Breast cancer women experience the side effects of chemotherapy sessions that can effect quality of life and lead towards the poor outcomes. By, understanding these changes, the treatment of breast cancer women can be improved. Objective: The study purpose was to determine the quality of life (QOL) among breast cancer patients during chemotherapy. Methodology: This was a cross-sectional survey to determine the health related quality of life (HRQOL) among breast cancer patients during chemotherapy in twin cities of Pakistan. Breast cancer patients who were receiving chemotherapy included in the study. Male breast cancer patients and females with the history of mastectomy were excluded. This study was conducted from June, 2016 to December, 2016 with the duration of 6 months. Purposive, non- probability sampling techniques was used for the study. Total sample size of breast cancer patients was 182. This study was conducted at the chemotherapy department of INMOL cancer hospital Lahore and NORI hospital, Islamabad. Data was collected through Questionnaire i.e. EORTC QLQ-C30 and BR23 Pakistani version for the assessment of HRQOL. The data was analyzed by SPSS version 21.0. Results: Results showed that there was a marked deterioration in emotional functioning (53.67+-20.31) and future perspective (52.56+-29.56). The symptom scale showed that maximum patients were reported with the problem of fatigue (52.31+-19.43), financial difficulties (57.50+-33.44) and with upset by hair loss (60.43+-30.71). The overall QOL of breast cancer patients was fair (54.87+-8.06). Conclusion: It was concluded that the quality of life of breast cancer patients during chemotherapy was fair with a marked deterioration in Emotional functioning and the maximum patients reported to experience fatigue and upset by hair loss. Keywords: Breast cancer, functional scale, symptom scale, QLQ C-30, QLQ BR-23, HRQOL.

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