Background: Chemoradiation is a combination therapy of chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Because chemotherapy\nis given together with radiotherapy, the side effects are heavier and more severe for some patients. For\nnasopharyngeal cancer patients, the side effects involve nausea, vomiting, anorexia, diarrhea, mucositis, xerostomia,\nand tasting and hearing loss, which influence their quality of life. The purpose of this study was to explore the\nexperiences of patients with head and neck cancer undergoing chemoradiation.\nMethods: A Phenomenogical desctipve, involving in depth interviewes was conducted during a 6 month study\nperiod. Eleven patiets with nasopharyngeal cancer participated in indepth inteviews Colaizziâ??s method was used in\nanalyzing data. The selection of participants in this study using purposive sampling method the inclusion criteria\nwere1) the patient had been diagnosed with head and neck cancer, 2) minimum age of 18 years, and 3 had been\nreceived external chemoradiation, minimum 14 times of chmemoradiation. The study was conducted at one outpatientradiotherapy\ndepartment. at Dharmais Cancer Centre Hospital, Jakarta.\nResult: The findings show three main themes: 1) xerostomia was the main physical complaint, 2) patients had\ndecreased social interaction, and 3) having adequate support from the family was important for patients.\nConclusion: The findings suggest involving family members when patients are undergoing chemoradiation.\nAdequate family support is needed to help the patients adapt to the side effects of chemoradiation with the best\npossible response.
Loading....