Symptom Experiences and Quality of Life in Adolescents with Cancer Receiving Cancer Treatments

Abstract

Cancer is a major illness for adolescents globally. In Thailand, for the 2010-2012 period, the rate of cancer diagnosed in adolescents aged between 10 and 14 years was 10.2 per 100,000 for males and 9.4 per 100,000 for females. Among teenagers aged between 15 and 19 years, the incidence rate was found to be 12 per 100,000 for males and 14.6 per 100,000 for females. 1 Statistical reports from Ramathibodi Hospital in Thailand showed that the number of adolescents aged between 10 and 15 years who were diagnosed with cancer was equal to 30 and 29 in 2015 and 2016, respectively. 2,3 This study focused specifically on adolescents aged between 10 and 15 years, because adolescents older than 15 are admitted to adult treatment facilities and are treated by non-pediatric physicians. Therefore, they are likely to receive different treatment protocols, which in turn would affect their symptom experiences and QOL.Adolescents can be treated with various regimens that are usually used for both children and adults. They generally receive more intense, longer treatments, and may encounter adverse outcomes when compared to other age groups. 4 These cancer treatments can cause a major disruption to adolescents' achievement of developmental tasks. Adolescents with cancer cannot perform usual activities and tend to depend on their parents, may drop out of school, and this can eventually impact their relationship with friends. This disruption to major developmental milestones leads to poor QOL. [5][6][7][8] Health-related QOL is described as "an overall sense of well-being based on being able to participate in usual activities, to interact with others and feel cared about; to cope with uncomfortable physical, emotional and cognitive Abstract OBJECTIVES: This descriptive correlational study aimed to explore symptom experiences, quality of life (QOL), and the relationship between these variables in adolescents with cancer receiving treatments. MATERIAL AND METHODS: 25 adolescents, recruited from a university hospital, Thailand, diagnosed with various types of cancer; age 10-15 years; having received at least one cycle of chemotherapy. The participants reported their symptom experiences, using MSAS (10-18) and their QOL, using the pediatrics quality of life (PedsQL) 4.0. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's product-moment correlational coefficient were used to describe the results. RESULT: Most of the participants were male (68%), with a mean age of 12.74 ± 20.44 years, and were diagnosed with hematological cancers (56%). They experienced a mean of 11.80 ± 5.61 symptoms. Dry mouth was found to be the most common and frequent symptom; swelling at arms or legs was rated as the most severe, and changes in the way food tastes was the most distressing symptom. All dimensions of symptom experiences had significant negative correlations with overall QOL (p < 0.05). CONCLUSION: Symptom experiences and QOL among adolescent cancer patients after chemotherapy showed specific differences. Therefore, nurses should assess every aspect for both inpat...

A Scoping Review of Biological Pathways of Integrative Interventions Used to Manage Chemotherapy-Induced Nausea and Vomiting in Children With Cancer

“…Chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) are the most common unpleasant symptoms experienced by children being treated for cancer with a regimen that includes chemotherapy. Despite receiving antiemetic pharmacological agents, more than half of these children experience CINV (Kamkhoad et al, 2019). These symptoms cause children to have difficulty eating, leading to undernutrition (Green et al, 2010), which heightens the risks for infection and thus mortality (Loeffen et al, 2015).…”