Exploring Discomfort during ChemotherapyAsian Pac J Cancer Prev, 24 (2), 459-465 surgery, to remove a cancerous tumor. The main goal of adjuvant chemotherapy is to lower the chance that cancer will return and improve the outcome of first-line treatment. (National Comprehensive Cancer Network, 2019).Discomfort for breast cancer patients might be felt during adjuvant chemotherapy simultaneously with a side effect from previous treatment, such as after surgery. Adjuvant therapy can consist of physical discomfort, including pain, fatigue, difficulty sleeping, nausea and vomiting, taste disorders, hair loss, constipation, diarrhea, sexual dysfunction, loss of appetite, and weight loss.

Nursing Outcomes of Patient's Comfort during Neoplastic Chemotherapy: An Integrative Review C urrently, cancer patients require more aggressive and systemic treatments. However, chemotherapy often causes discomfort which affects patient's well-being during and after cancer treatment. 1 The nursing mission then focuses on patient's comfort and the interventions offered to relieve discomfort. The care is delivered after an assessment of patients' needs, implementations of care, and outcomes from such interventions. These nursing interventions include physical and psycho-spiritual contexts intended to alleviate the patient's discomfort observed from signs and symptoms. There is a great opportunity to address the patient's needs and to understand him/her, which increases the likelihood that patient will be safe during treatment. This is considered a relief effort. 2 Comfort is theoretically defined at this point as the state of being meeting the basic human need for ease, relief, and transcendence. 3 Nurse-led care and management have a significant impact on patient experience and outcomes. However, currently there are no definitive criteria in establishing what constitutes sufficient evidence of this beyond using the outcome. Previous reviews have used an overview of evidence-based intervention studies. 4 Evidence-base-nursing outcomes in the physical dimensions of cancer patients during chemotherapy were reviewed and used to develop a set of indicators that are suitable for performance measurement and to identify the need for quality improvement.

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A t present, chemotherapy is the treatment of choice for patients with malignancy, as it aims to repress growth and prevent cancer spreading toward other organs, and to destroy cancer cells. 1-2 Chemotherapy treatment is given over a period of time with continuity of care. This inevitably affects the patients' quality of life particularly in patients whom experience adverse effects of chemotherapy during treatment. As a result, the patients are frequently worried, anxious, depressed and in despair. 3-4 Therefore, any treatments that can routinely lead to adverse effects/reactions need to be administered with scrupulous care. The ability to perform self-care management is essential and is an integral part of the recovery process. If the patients are able to live an effective and fulfilling life, they will feel worthy and feel accepted in society. However, the fact is that patients have to go to hospital regularly for chemotherapy, having to confront the usual side effects such as nausea, vomiting, oral/alimentary ulcer, buccal mucositis, loss of appetite, change in dietary behavior, weight loss, abnormality of bone-morrow system, bleeding tendency, fever, prone to get infection easily, immunocompromised, constipation, diarrhea, loss of body fluid and mineral balance, hair loss and skin color change, and fragile health etc. 5 These unfavorable symptoms definitely have an impact on mind and body adaptation as well as patients' social responsibilities. Therefore, if patients are able to adapt and to manage these symptoms by themselves, they could gain a better quality of life during treatment with chemotherapy.