Original Research Article
Year: 2021 | Month: February | Volume: 11 | Issue: 2 | Pages: 236-242
Chemotherapy Associated Side Effects among Children with Cancer
Nihaika Rawat1, Sanjenbam Emon Chanu2, Vandana Chauhan3
1M.Sc. Nursing, Child Health Nursing, Himalayan College of Nursing, SRHU, Jollygrant, Dehradun,
2Associate Professor, Child Health Nursing, Himalayan College of Nursing, SRHU, Jollygrant, Dehradun.
3Assistant Professor, Child Health Nursing, Himalayan College of Nursing, SRHU, Jollygrant, Dehradun.
Corresponding Authors: Niharika Rawat, Sanjenbam Emon Chanu
ABSTRACT
The use of chemotherapy is the basic approach to cancer treatment. These therapeutic agents lead to multiple symptoms because these agents cannot selectively distinguish between cancerous and non-cancerous cells. As a result, children undergoing chemotherapy may have cytotoxic and severe side effects. The author investigated the frequency and severity of common symptoms based on previous literature among children undergoing chemotherapy.
Materials and methods: Seventy five (75) children undergoing chemotherapy along with their parents were enrolled as participants. Therapy associated side effects of children were reported in a scale of 0 to 5 to assess the severity of the side effects.
Results: The findings of the present study revealed that 80% of the study participants reported therapy-related symptoms. The most frequent symptoms were changes in taste (95%), loss of appetite (88%), nausea (87%), vomiting (72%), and dry mouth (71%). Gastrointestinal symptoms and fatigue were seen severely in most of the participants. According to the severity level, 9% of the participants had severe, 29% had moderate and 62% of them had mild severity of the therapy related symptoms. The study also suggested that there was a significant association between severity of the side effects and duration of treatment (0.029), chemotherapy phase (<.00001) and drug regimen (0.015).
Conclusions: The present study concluded that children undergoing chemotherapy experienced lots of distress due to the nature of the treatment. Changes in taste are the most persistent therapy-related symptom reported by children. Other frequent Gastro-intestinal symptoms were loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, and weight loss.
Key words: Childhood Cancer, Side effects of Chemotherapy, Severity of the side effects