Quality of life of patients with advanced cancer under treatment
A systematic review with qualitative synthesis
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.32635/2176-9745.RBC.2024v70n4.4835Keywords:
Quality of life, Malignant neoplasms, Qualitative researchAbstract
Background: Global cancer incidence has increased and many patients live for a substantial time after diagnosis even in an advanced case scenario with metastatic disease. In this regard, ethical reflexion about quality – not only quantity of life – are of upmost consideration.
Objective: We conducted a systematic literature review on this theme, aiming to describe which are the main factors that affect quality of life in patients with advanced cancer under oncological treatment and tried to describe what are the main determinants of it, on a subject perspective.
Method: It was selected nine articles that constitute the corpus of analysis. Our methodological approach was Bardin´´´´´ s content analysis, mainly code frequency, co-ocorrence and contingent analysis, culminating in a final thematic analysis.
Results: We found eleven themes and fifteen sub-themes, orbitating the main theme: perspective of being a family burden. The theme least related to the others – possibly indicating a complementary dimension to the others – was: keeping hope.
Conclusions: Qualitative synthesis has shown that concerns regarding the family support network appear to significantly influence the quality of life of patients with advanced cancer under treatment.
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