[Relationship between cancer characteristics and quality of life in the cancer patients under chemotherapy referred to selected clinic of Tehran university of medical sciences]

ABSTRACT

This descriptive study was performed to find the relationship between cancer characters and the life quality of patients under chemotherapy referred to selected clinic of Tehran university of medical sciences. The sample consisted of 200 patients with different types of cancer [solid tumors] selected by simple sampling method. A questionnaire was filled for each patient using patients' files, self-reports and interviews. Chi-square test was used to find the statistical relationships. Thirty-five percent of the subjects had gastrointestinal cancer, 35.5% were at the stage 3 of the disease, in 61.5% the duration of disease from diagnosis time was less than a year, 41% had mild pain, 91% had accepted their disease, 84.5% had a decrease or loss of organ's function and 69.5% had a moderate intensity of fatigue. The quality of life of the majority of the subjects was moderate [66%]. There were significant relationships between characteristics of cancer like type of the cancer [P < 0.01], intensity of pain [P < 0.01], decrease or loss of organ's function [P < 0.01], or the degree of fatigue [P < 0.001] and the life quality, but there was no correlation between acceptance or refusal of the disease, duration of disease from diagnosis time or stage of cancer and quality of life