scholarly journals The Use of Complementary and Alternative Medicine in Thai Gynecologic Oncology Patients: Influencing Factors

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Nuntorn Chukasemrat ◽  
Chuenkamon Charakorn ◽  
Arb-aroon Lertkhachonsuk

Background. To determine the factors influencing the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in gynecologic cancer patients and the prevalence and pattern of CAM use. Methods. This was a cross-sectional study of 370 gynecologic cancer patients conducted at the outpatient clinic, Ramathibodi Hospital, Mahidol University, Bangkok, Thailand. After obtaining informed consent, participants were asked to complete a standardized questionnaire including sociodemographic and clinical characteristics, detail of CAM use, attitude of CAM use, and quality of life using EORTC-QLQ-C30. Results. The prevalence of CAM use was 25.13%. The most common type was herbal medicine (55.90%). The participants who resided or had a birthplace in rural areas presented with a higher proportion of CAM use than those in urban areas ( P = 0.470 and P = 0.004 , respectively). Participants who received multiple modalities of cancer treatment reported a significantly higher proportion of CAM use ( P = 0.024 ). Most CAM users agreed that the CAM could be used in combination with standard treatment, and some rather disagreed that CAM could interrupt the treatment effect of the conventional treatment. CAM users had significantly higher role functioning in quality-of-life scores. Conclusion. Factors influencing CAM use in gynecologic cancer patients were rural area birthplace or residency, receiving multiple modalities of cancer treatment, having positive attitude toward CAM use. CAM users had better performance in role functioning in the quality-of-life score. Therefore, gynecologic oncologists should pay attention to these factors in order to communicate with gynecologic cancer patients about CAM use.

2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (16) ◽  
pp. 2569-2573 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deri Edianto ◽  
Muhammad Rizki Yaznil ◽  
Ade Ayu Chartyansari ◽  
Iman Helmi Effendi

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, successful treatment of cancer is not only measured by 5-years survival rate, but also by the patient’s quality of life (QOL). Delayed in the seeking of cancer treatment resulted in high morbidity and impact on the quality of life. AIM: This study aims to assess the QOL of patients with gynecologic cancer after therapy. The results of this research can be used as a basis for cancer treatment that should be holistic, not only to eradicate the disease, but also improve QOL. METHODS: A total of 47 respondents who went to the Department of Oncology, Haji Adam Malik Hospital Medan from May to October 2015 were asked to fill out the FACT-G questionnaire for the QOL assessment. The patient’s personal and disease data was taken from the medical records. The data were analysed statistically by one-way ANOVA test. RESULTS: The results showed that the physical, social, emotional and functional of cancer patients were not much different based on the variables studied. The QOL was higher in patients with endometrial cancer compared with other types of cancer. The QOL was also higher in patients who had completed treatment (> 6 months) and early-stages cancer. There was no statistical difference between the QOL of patients with gynecologic cancer based on therapeutic modalities, duration of treatment and the stage of disease (p > 0.05). CONCLUSION: This current study found the QOL, physical, and emotional complaints are still encountered.


2021 ◽  
Vol 39 (15_suppl) ◽  
pp. e24033-e24033
Author(s):  
Nathalie Dauphin McKenzie ◽  
Nnamdi Ifekandu Gwacham ◽  
Julie W. Pepe ◽  
Sarfraz Ahmad ◽  
James Erasmus Kendrick ◽  
...  

e24033 Background: General health related factors such as obesity, unhealthy diets disproportionate with sugary and highly processed foods, inactivity, and smoking have repeatedly been shown to negatively impact survival and quality of life outcomes in cancer survivors. The Healthy Eating Active Lifestyle (HEAL) – GYN “rehabilitation” cancer program was developed to provide intensive group lifestyle training on exercise, nutrition, sleep, social integration, and stress management via a telemedicine platform. The aim of this study was to determine the feasibility of such an intervention and its tolerability, in addition to its impact on short-term quality of life for gynecologic cancer patients. Methods: HEAL – GYN consists of 8 weekly group sessions offering experiential instruction and personalized goal setting for patients with diagnosis of gynecologic cancer. Components are drawn from the tenets of lifestyle medicine. An oncologist certified in lifestyle medicine along with a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team addressed diet, physical activity, strategies for sleep and stress management, smoking cessation, and alcohol intake. The intervention included training to address unmet psychologic, emotional, physical, sexual, social, and spiritual needs common to cancer survivors. American College of Lifestyle Medicine questionnaires were administered, utilizing Likert scales (1-5) in a pre- and post- fashion to assess improvements in physical activity levels, dietary habits, sleep hygiene, and quality of life. Medical records were reviewed including anthropometric data. Results: 26 patients have enrolled thus far, and we report outcomes on the first 20 participants. The mean age was 58.8 years; 22 were Caucasian, and 7 were on maintenance therapies for gynecologic cancers. Average total severity of reported symptoms (scale = 100 points) on a general medical symptom questionnaire (MSQ) decreased by 22% (61 vs 48). Eight patients reported increased perceived levels of health and 6 had stable perception of health. There were also notable improvements from baseline in item assessments of eating behavior (34%), perceived stress (20%), and resilience (21%). Patients also reported a notable trend towards improvement in anxiety (35%) and depression (34%), as well as social integration and connectedness (30%). 100% of participants would “highly recommend the program” and none complained of stress or altered mood associated with online instruction. Conclusions: The telemedicine HEAL – GYN peri-habilitation program is feasible and well tolerated. In addition, the program may improve quality of life and may prevent further decline for those on treatment or maintenance therapy. These preliminary findings support continued investigation of a telemedicine healthy lifestyle peri-habilitative program.


2017 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-74 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irene Teo ◽  
Yin Bun Cheung ◽  
Timothy Yong Kuei Lim ◽  
Rama Padmavathi Namuduri ◽  
Victoria Long ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
Sharyn Carrasco, PhD, RN

Background: The purpose of this descriptive phenomenological study was to gain an in-depth understanding of cancer patients’ experiences and perspectives on self-reporting their symptoms. Patients with cancer experience a wide variety of symptoms from both their disease and treatment, yet clinicians are often unaware of their patients’ symptoms due to poor reporting methods. Poorly documented symptoms are more likely to go untreated, causing increased symptom distress and decreased quality of life for patients. Effective, real-time communication between patients and health-care practitioners is key to symptom assessment and management. Moreover, it is important for patients’ communication preferences to be taken into account when developing symptom management plans. Methods: This qualitative study focused on the symptom reporting experiences of 13 adults in the United States with advanced or metastatic cancer who were undergoing systemic cancer treatment. Data were collected via interviews. Results: The findings revealed that a personalized symptom management plan, prompt reporting, and timely communication with health-care practitioners improved patients’ physical and emotional wellbeing. Conclusions: A better understanding of cancer patients’ experiences self-reporting their symptoms may lead to improved communication methods and more effective reporting systems, which ultimately reduce patient burden and enhance patients’ self-advocacy. Ensuring that patients’ preferences for reporting their symptoms are met may positively influence the likelihood and timeliness of symptom self-reporting. Developing new and improved ways for health-care teams to manage symptoms is vital to improving patients’ quality of life.


2020 ◽  
Vol 156 (3) ◽  
pp. e22-e23
Author(s):  
L. Driskill ◽  
T. Castellano ◽  
Kai Ding ◽  
R. Ruskin ◽  
M. Rowland ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 26 (6) ◽  
pp. 1421-1428
Author(s):  
Ebrahim Salehifar ◽  
Ghasem Janbabaei ◽  
Abbas Alipour ◽  
Nasim Tabrizi ◽  
Razieh Avan

Purpose Taxane-induced peripheral neuropathy (TIPN) is a common and bothersome toxicity. This study aimed to determine the incidence and severity of TIPN in patients with breast cancer and to investigate the relationship between TIPN and quality of life. Methods A total of 82 breast cancer patients with TIPN symptoms were included in this study. The criteria of National Cancer Institute-Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (NCI-CTCAE v4.03) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30, version 3.0) were used to evaluate grading of sensory neuropathy and quality of life, respectively. Analysis of the data was done by IBM SPSS statistics version 23. Results A total of 346 patients received taxane-based chemotherapy and 82 patients (23.7%) experience TIPN. The mean (SD) global health status/quality of life, physical functioning, role functioning, and pain subscales were 60.63 (5.26), 80.64 (9.05), 81.77 (10.41), and 43.88 (11.27), respectively. There were significant negative correlations between global health status/quality of life, physical functioning, and role functioning subscales with the grade of neuropathy (r = −0.33, −0.80, and −0.61, respectively) and positive correlation between pain subscale and the grade of neuropathy (r = 0.70). Conclusion This study shows a clear association between TIPN and worsened quality of life. These findings emphasize on detecting and management of TIPN in an effort to improve the quality of life of breast cancer patients.


Cancers ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 2617
Author(s):  
Angela Privat-Maldonado ◽  
Annemie Bogaerts

Cancer is the second leading cause of death worldwide, and while science has advanced significantly to improve the treatment outcome and quality of life in cancer patients, there are still many issues with the current therapies, such as toxicity and the development of resistance to treatment [...]


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Asfaw Erku

Background.Today, complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) use is being routinely practiced by cancer patients worldwide. This study aimed at examining the prevalence of CAM use in patients with cancer and comparing the quality of life (QoL) in CAM users and nonusers.Methods.A cross-sectional study was employed on 195 cancer patients receiving chemotherapy at Gondar University Referral Hospital (GURH) chemotherapy center. Interviewer-administered questionnaires were used and the collected data were analyzed by the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) software version 21.0 for Windows.Results.154 (79%) patients were found to be users of CAM. Educational status, average monthly income, disease stage, and comorbidity were strong predictors of use of CAM. The most commonly utilized types of CAM were traditional herbal based medicine (72.1%) and only 20.8% of patients discuss with their doctors CAM use. No significant difference was found in QoL between CAM users and nonusers except in financial difficulties (p=0.020).Conclusions.This study revealed a high rate of CAM use with very low disclosure rate to their health care providers. Health care providers should be open to discuss the use of CAM with their patients as it will lead to better health outcome.


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