Quality of life of patients with colon and rectal cancer / Qualidade de vida de pacientes com câncer de cólon e reto: revisão integrativa da literatura

AUTOR(ES)
DATA DE PUBLICAÇÃO

2008

RESUMO

Colon and rectal cancer affects people throughout the world and is among the five most common types of cancer in Brazil. The impact of the disease and its treatment in the patients life may cause physical, psychological, and social changes, thus affecting his quality of life. This study is an integrative literature review with the purpose to identify and assess the evidence available in the literature about the produced scientific knowledge regarding the quality of life of adult patients with colon and rectal cancer. The articles were selected using the databases LILACS, CINAHL, and MEDLINE, and the sample comprised 24 articles. Only one of the selected articles was written in Portuguese; the others were published in English. The authors were mostly physicians (62.5%), and nurses contributed with 8.3% of the publications. Of all articles, 79.1% are related to universities; most took place in developed countries; and among 20 surveyed serials, only 15% were nursing journals. As to their design, 23 of the analyzed articles are quantitative studies and one is qualitative; most (70.8%) are of a non-experimental outline, descriptive studies that along with the qualitative offer weak evidence level, 16.7% are cohort studies, and only 12.5% have strong evidence level, they are controlled randomized clinical trials. Content analysis established six thematic categories related quality of life: short term survival, long term survival, influence from physical activity, influence from follow-up exams, psychosocial evaluation, and aspects inherent to the patient. Result analysis revealed that cancer diagnosis and treatment affects physical, emotional, mental, social and role functioning, and global health. Furthermore, it causes several symptoms at different levels. In addition, it showed that quality of life is also affected by factors such as the presence of co-morbidities, lifestyle, leading a sedentary life, age, gender, nutritional condition, stage of the tumor at diagnosis, type of treatment, disease remission and recurrence. It was found that the practice of exercises, the increase of physical fitness, nutritional condition, and the presence of psychosocial support benefit a better quality of life. This integrative review showed the level of knowledge produced about this subject and pointed out that the evidence is weak, with a low production by nurses. Hence, we suggest that nurses be better prepared, as of the undergraduate course, with permanent education after graduating, in the pertinent field of research and the development of intervention research so that the evidence extracted from clinical studies can help nurses to plan actions that make it possible to rehabilitate and improve the quality of life of patients with colon and rectal cancer.

ASSUNTO(S)

colorectal neoplasms quality of life qualidade de vida enfermagem oncológica câncer colorretal oncologic nursing

ACESSO AO ARTIGO

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