Evaluation of adverse events and health‐related quality of life in patients with colorectal cancer receiving ambulatory home‐based chemotherapy in Thailand

Abstract

Chemotherapy is one modality for cancer treatment and customarily delivered in a hospital. Ambulatory home-based chemotherapy was initiated in the 1970s in Western countries (DeMoss, 1980). Today, this healthcare service system is implemented worldwide, based on findings demonstrating its effectiveness, safety, cost savings, convenience, patient satisfaction and improved quality of life. Additionally, this approach reduces the length of hospital stay and the risk of hospital-acquired infections (Keshvani et al., 2019).The equipment used for home chemotherapy administration is either an electronic or a non-electronic infusion device. The elastomeric infusion pump is a non-electronic device that requires no programming and is suited for the home setting owing to its small size, light weight, safety, accuracy, comfort, simplicity of use, ease of fluid filling and lack of maintenance cost (Broadhurst, 2012).Chemotherapy infusion is driven by pressure created by the stretched elastomeric membrane; the flow rate is generated by the pressure gradient across the flow restrictor and the fluid viscosity (Skryabina & Dunn, 2006). Moreover, the patient's body temperature, type

“It's a part of the patient”: The experiences of patients with cancer undergoing home-based chemotherapy from patients' and nurses' perspectives

“…In a study on adverse effects of chemotherapy, nausea, mucositis, and fatigue were reportedly more common in the HC group than in the inpatient group. 13 Additionally, HC poses difficulties such as discomfort due to wearing the elastomeric infuser for infusing anticancer drugs, obstruction of the infuser line, and a delay in the termination of chemotherapy infusion. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to explore the experiences of patients with cancer undergoing HC and identify their unmet needs through their perspective and that of nurses who work with cancer patients.…”