CHANGES IN QUALITY OF LIFE AND SYMPTOM EXPERI- ENCE IN BREAST CANCER PATIENTS WITH ADJUVANT

Background: Women diagnosed with breast cancer face significant side-effects such as nausea, vomiting, hair loss, and cognitive impairment and emotional distress due to aggressive adjuvant treatment. These side-effects adversely affect quality of life and symptom experience. The purpose of the study was to describe how quality of life and symptom experience develops over time in breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Methods: The study group was 113 women who had surgery and scheduled for adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 71) or radiotherapy (n = 42). Patients were assessed with quality of life (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy for Breast Cancer) and symptom experience (Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale-Short Form) before chemotherapy or radiotherapy (pretest), after chemotherapy or radiotherapy (post-test), and 6 months after chemotherapy or radiotherapy (followup test). Analysis of variance of repeated measures was used to investigate the change in quality of life and symptom experience in two groups. Findings: Patients receiving chemotherapy showed a significant increase in overall symptoms and physical symptoms between baseline and post-test. Overall quality of life, physical well-being, emotional well-being, and breast cancer specific domain decreased from pretest to post-test in the chemotherapy group but increased from post-test to the follow-up test. By contrast, there were no significant changes in symptom experience for the patients receiving radiotherapy. Significant increases were seen in overall quality of life, physical well-being, emotional well-being and breast cancer specific domain from baseline to follow-up test in patients receiving radiotherapy. Interpretation: When considering the substantial increase in life expectancy in persons with breast cancer, nursing practice and research should focus on quality of life and provide interventions to improve symptom experience and quality of life.