An exploration into the quality of life of women treated for cervical cancer

Background: Cervical cancer mainly occurs among women from the developing world, and women face unique challenges in terms of their disease and treatment. Most women present with advanced cervical cancer and receive the standard curative treatment with external beam radiotherapy and brachytherapy with or without chemotherapy. Objectives: To describe the quality of life (QOL) of women treated for cervical cancer during treatment (M0), at 6 months after completing treatment (M6) and at 12 months after treatment (M12).Methods: A cross-sectional design, calculated sample size (n = 153) and convenience sampling were used. Data were collected through structured interviews, and the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ CX24 served as data collection instruments. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data, and the Kruskal­Wallis H test was used to compare the mean responses across the groups (p ≤ 0.05).Results: The mean age of the respondents was 50.6 years (standard deviation [SD] 11.9). The global health status improved significantly in contrast with the functional scores. Financial difficulties were rampant, especially during the treatment phase. Insomnia and urinary frequency were the most cumbersome problems and remained so even after treatment.Conclusions: Despite an improvement in the global health, cervical cancer and its treatment had a negative influence on the QOL in all domains of lives of these women. Assessing the QOL of patients during treatment and follow-up visits would allow nurses to develop interventions to address distressing problems timeously. In addition, Africa's nurses should assess social functioning and develop programmes to prevent social dysfunction

A Prospective Study on the Impact of Waiting Times for Radiotherapy for Cervical Cancer at Charlotte Maxeke Johannesburg Academic Hospital

Background. Radiotherapy plays a vital role in the management of cervical cancer. However; due to high patient load and limited resources; waiting lists are unacceptably long. This is a highly curable malignancy that often occurs in economically active; relatively young women. Thus; the impact of treatment delays on society is disproportionately large when compared to many other malignancies. Delays also impact negatively on the health care system and places further stress on an already burdened department. This prospective study aimed to evaluate the potential impact of radiotherapy delays Patients and methods. Eighty-one patients requiring radical radiotherapy for cervical cancer were selected. Patients were re-evaluated every four weeks while waiting; and again at simulation.Results. Median delay from first consultation to simulation was 55 days. Longer delays were not statistically correlated to tumour progression. Most of the upstaging occurred around 40 to 65 days. One in four patients received blood transfusions and required hospital admission. Four patients needed haemostatic brachytherapy for bleeding. Conclusion. A relationship between time waited and disease progression could not be proven. However; numbers were small and statistical tests were likely underpowered. The study does; however; highlight unacceptably long delays for radiotherapy and a wait of less than 40 days is recommended