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

An Integrative Review of South African Cancer Nursing Research Published from 2002-2012

Background: This integrative review aimed to quantify the publication output of South African cancer nursing research conducted between 2002 and 2012 and to identify key trends relevant to cancer nurse researchers. Objectives: To describe the publication output of cancer nursing research in terms of the journals of publication; authors; focus; participants and methods used; to explore whether the published work was funded and to assess the quality of the studies published. Methods: An integrative review was conducted using the key words South Africa in combination with cancer nursing and oncology nursing to search the databases Pubmed; PsycINFO; CINAHL; Sabinet; Web of Science; Medline and OvidSP. A data extraction sheet was developed to document the required information from each paper and all publications were reviewed independently by the authors. Results: A total of 181 publications for potential inclusion were identified and 26 papers were included in this review. Cervical cancer; specifically the prevention of this disease; was the most popular diagnostic focus and theme of investigation. Most of the studies were descriptive and none of the studies met the criteria of the highest quality. Conclusion: Nursing added to the body of knowledge regarding the primary and secondary prevention of cancer. There is a need for work on both men and women diagnosed withthe most common cancers; as well as the family and care giver. There is also a need for multidisciplinary work using complex interventions focusing on symptom management to improve patient outcomes

Yes; Breast Cancer Related Lymphoedema can be Managed

The purpose of the study was to demonstrate that breast cancer related lymphoedema can be managed by means of Complete Decompression Therapy and consequently improve quality of life. An instrumental case study design was used. The target population was all women with breast cancer related lymphoedema living in Tshwane; the context of the study. The patient with the most severe breast cancer related lymphoedema treated by the researcher is presented. Mixed methods were used to gather data. The expected 60limb volume reduction could not be achieved after 4 weeks of induction therapy. After 8.5 weeks of treatment; the limb volume reduced from the initial 3841 mL to 1639 mL; a 57.2reduction. Patient compliance to compression therapy was a challenge and led to relapse extending the induction phase of treatment. Despite the prolonged treatment; the limb volume reduction improved the patient's quality of life. The study demonstrated and confirmed that despite a degree of noncompliance; breast cancer related lymphoedema can be managed with Complete Decongestive Therapy which; in turn; improves the quality of life of women living with breast cancer