Quality of Life of Oncological Patients in Palliative Care Submitted to Physiotherapeutic Treatment: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Introduction: Palliative Care (PC) is the provision of specific attention to a patient with a chronic degenerative disease of multifactorial etiology and aims to reduce the patient's and family's pain and sorrow. The physiotherapist integrates the multidisciplinary team that deals with this goal.Objectives: Through a systematic review, the objective of this work is to analyze the quality of life of oncological patients in palliative care submitted to physiotherapeutic treatment.Methods: This study applies the PRISMA methodology, using the following scientific databases: MEDLINE, LILACS, SCIELO, and PEDRO. It addresses the following intervention studies: controlled clinical trials, and randomized controlled clinical trials. The keywords used are "Palliative Care", "Physical therapy", and "Quality of life", and the inclusion criterion when analyzing the clinical outcomes are functionality, fatigue, and quality of life.Results: Improvements in functionality and fatigue are promising. However, results related to the quality of life are not favorable when isolated, only in the domains that complete it. Conclusion:According to the exposed, this review work indicates that the improvement on the quality of life of oncological patients in PC does not occur isolated, but in several domains, mainly related to fatigue and functionality, highlighting the importance of physiotherapy. The development of more research in this area is necessary, to supplement scientific and practical limitations since it was observed that the evaluation of functional performance and quality of life are considered a measure of the effectiveness of palliative care.