The effects of chemotherapy on the health of women with cancer

Introduction: The most common types of cancer in young women are breast, thyroid,melanoma, cervix and colon-rectum carcinoma. Today chemotherapy is a selective way oftreatment among of patients. Although chemotherapy has an important rule in cure and prevention of cancer but it has some kind of side effects that have a lot of misery for the patient.Method: The aim of this review article is assessment on the chemotherapy side effect on women. Data collected by search data sources PubMed, EMBASE, the Cochrane Library,Scopus, CINAHL, using common keywords related to women cancer, chemotherapy, side effect and similar word, and then selected related article published between 2010 to 2018. Results:The side effect most frequently reported was hair loss, nausea, and tiredness. Each of these side effects was experienced by more than 80 % of patients at some time up through cycle 6, and by close to two of three of group in any single cycle. In addition, vomiting, sleep disturbance, weight again, mouth sores, and numbness/tingling were each a consequence for more than 40% of the sample. Conclusion: In view of these findings, this study suggests that nurses in chemotherapy clinicsneed to use alternative methods for providing information to patients about management of side effects. Supportive telephone calls as well as information audiotapes can foster self-care behaviors and reduce anxiety. Teaching materials that can be taken home and referred to when needed one is very helpful in reinforcing information.

Keywords:

chemotherapy , women , cance