Quality of life during chemotherapy and satisfaction with nursing care in Turkish breast cancer patients.

This descriptive cross-sectional study aimed to evaluate quality of life for breast cancer patients (n = 105) undergoing chemotherapy, and to assess their satisfaction with nursing care. It also explored relationships between quality of life, satisfaction with nursing care, and demographic and disease-related characteristics. Ethics approval for this study was provided. The research was carried out between October 2011 and June 2012. Quality of life and satisfaction with nursing care were assessed using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General Scale, the Memorial Symptom Assessment Scale and the Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scale. We found that emotional well-being was the area most negatively affected, with patients reporting being afraid of death, feeling sad and being worried about their health. Patients were overall quite satisfied with the nursing care they received at the hospital. We found a positive correlation between total scores on the Newcastle Satisfaction with Nursing Scale and social and family well-being scores. Breast cancer patients have fears and concerns about their health and need support during chemotherapy for coping with negative changes in their emotional well-being, physical and functional well-being.

Comparison of the symptoms reported by post-operative patients with cancer and nurses' perception of patient symptoms.

The purpose of this study was to compare the symptoms reported by patients with cancer after palliative surgery and mechanical ventilation in an intensive care unit (ICU) with their primary nurses' perception of the symptoms. The study adopted a descriptive and correlational study design. The sample comprised 60 Turkish patients with cancer who had been mechanically ventilated for 1-12 h at the ICU following palliative surgery. In addition to the patients' reports, the nurses (= 8) independently rated their own perceptions of the patients' symptoms. Data were collected using the Edmonton Symptom Assessment Scale (ESAS). The mean age of the sample was 62.28 years (SD = 15.02; range: 27-86). The mean score of the patients on the ESAS was 55.17 (SD = 26.16) and that of the nurses was 55.48 (SD = 27.13). The study found no statistically significant differences between scores of patients' reports and nurses' assessments of symptoms, except for the category of pain. Patients reported more pain than the nurses' perceived (Z = -2.311, P = 0.021). Systematic and frequent symptom assessments of patients in ICUs after palliative surgical operations should be an integral part of nursing care.

Effect of oral administration of kefir on serum proinflammatory cytokines on 5-FU induced oral mucositis in patients with colorectal cancer.

In order to investigate the effect of kefir consumption on mucositis induced by 5-FU based chemotherapy (CT), we monitored the systemic immune response by measurement of the serum proinflammatory cytokine levels and we evaluated the anti-microbial effect of kefir with an agar diffusion method. Forty patients with colorectal cancer were included in this randomized prospective study. On the first 5 days of each CT cycle, the study group received oral lavage with kefir and then swallowed 250 ml of kefir while control group received oral lavage with 0.09% NaCl twice a day. Before and after every cycle of CT, the oral mucosa was assessed. Serum proinflammatory cytokine levels were evaluated before the initiation and after the third and the sixth cycle. Kefir was administered in 99 out of 205 courses. Mucositis developed in 27.3% of the courses given with kefir administration and in 21.7% of the courses given with 0.9% NaCl oral rinses. The difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (p > 0.05). When we compared the serum proinflammatory cytokine levels of the two groups at the baseline and following the third and the sixth cycles, we again found no statistically significant difference (p > 0.05). Kefir consumption at the mentioned doses made no statistically significant effect on serum proinflammatory cytokine levels and on the incidence of mucositis development in cancer patients. Under in vitro conditions, kefir inhibits only Staphylococcus epidermidis.