Prechemotherapy Expectations as a Predictor of Side Effects in Breast Cancer Patients

Abstract

Introduction or Background: Side effect (SE) is a major drawback of chemotherapy. Apart from the effect of the drugs, it has been suggested that patient’s pretreatment expectation contributes to the severity of some SEs. The aim of this study is to assess whether  prechemotherapy expectations can predict reported SEs in breast cancer patients.

Patients, Materials and Methods: This is a prospective study involving 101 breast cancer patients scheduled for chemotherapy at the  University College Hospital, Ibadan. Before chemotherapy was given, they were asked to state the SEs; they expect from the treatment  and the SEs; they anticipate will be the most difficult to cope with. Patient’s self‑reported SEs were then collated three weeks after the  completion of the prescribed courses of chemotherapy. The responses were compared and subjected to relevant statistical analysis for  inferential purposes.

Results: The age ranges from 22 to 78 years with peak ages between 40 and 59 years. There was a positive  association between patients’ pretreatment expectations and their posttreatment reports of vomiting (P = 0.015) but not with fatigue (P =  0.112), hair loss (P = 0.372), diarrhoea (P = 0.720), and loss of appetite (P = 0.221). Before treatment, hair loss was expected to be the   ost difficult to cope with in 58 (52.7%) patients; however, only 3 (3.0%) patients reported it as such afterward. Fatigue was anticipated as  likely to be the greatest difficulty by only 3 patients (3.0%) before treatment but was finally rated as such by 74 (73.3%) patients afterward. 

Conclusion: Pretreatment expectation of vomiting was associated with its occurrence. Pretreatment expectation should be    factored in when counselling patients for chemotherapy.