Dear Editor-in-Chief
According to WHO, cancer was considered as the major cause of morbidity and mortality globally, with around 14 million new cases and 8.2 million cancer related fatalities in 2012 (1). There is a pervasive impression among many nurses that radiotherapy and chemotherapy often lead to diminished quality of life (QOL), through affecting all aspects of recipients’ lives (2). King Hussein Cancer Foundation (2015) (3), reported that the total number of cancer cases in Jordan was 6,820 case; 4,921 of these cases being among Jordanians. This number is considered a high percentage, taking into consideration the undiscovered and unregistered cases. The top rated cancers among males in Jordan are colo-rectal (colon) cancer, lung cancer and lymphoma. Cancer is considered as the second major leading cause of mortality in Jordan after heart disease.
Patients with cancer suffer from negative side effects including pain, depression, anorexia and fatigue, which not only shorten life but also worsen its quality (4). At hospital settings, nurses are the key players in the improvement of the QOL for cancer patients. Therefore, it is essential that nurses build on the significant information about the QOL issue and take a lead in the further development and testing of cost-effective interventions to enhance it (5). Most nurses use unsystematic approaches to learn about their patients’ QOL and personal values and to apply this knowledge to make clinical decisions may improve their patients’ QOL (5). There is a pervasive impression among many nurses that radiotherapy and chemotherapy often lead to diminished QOL, through affecting all aspects of recipients’ lives (6).
Pearson Product Moment Correlation showed no significant relationship between fatigue scores as measured by PFS and selected variables on continuous (Table 1). In conclusion, radiotherapy is a devastating agent and may affect cancer patients’ physical, emotional and functional dimensions of QOL. Therefore, nurses should assess cancer patients’ QOL before, during, and after their treatment, in order to design interventions that have the potential to enhance the QOL for their patients.
Table 1:
Results of Pearson Product Correlation Coefficient between Fatigue Scores as measured by PFS and Sociodemographic Variables on Continuous Level
| Sociodemographic Variables | QOL Scores |
|---|---|
| Age | −0.094 |
| Number of people living in the same household | 0.09 |
| Dose of radiotherapy | −0.045 |
| Hemoglobin level | 0.065 |
| Distance between home and hospital | 0.061 |
Acknowledgments
The authors declare that there is no conflict of interests.
References
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