Assessment of Quality of Life of Patients Undergoing Oncology Treatment

Objective: To assess the quality of life of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy assisted in a High Complexity Centre for Cancer Treatment in Southern Brazil.
Method: cross-sectional, descriptive study conducted at a High Complexity Centre for Cancer Treatment in Southern Brazil. Authors used a sociodemographic clinical questionnaire and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer and the Quality of Life Core - 30 - Questionnare. For data analysis, authors used the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) for Windows, version 18.0.
Results: participants were 437 patients whose mean age was 57.46 ± 13.26 years. There was prevalence of women (60%), married people (68.6%), with incomplete primary education (63.8%) and with income of 01-02 minimum wages (60.2%). The Quality of Life Core -30-Questionnare showed that the most affected domains were role performance, emotional function and symptoms of “fatigue”, “pain” and “insomnia”. The overall quality of life reached satisfactory score and financial deficiency was also indicated by patients with an average of 27.05.
Conclusion: quality of life is affected by chemotherapy treatment for its potential to cause symptoms and change the daily life of individuals. Health professionals need to provide care taking into consideration the individual as an indivisible whole.