Efeito da quimioterapia na capacidade funcional de mulheres com câncer ginecológico, câncer de mama e doença trofoblástica gestacional no serviço de Oncologia de um hospital público

Abstract

Introduction: the high rate of cancer registered in women in Brazil highlights a real public health problem. With basis on this information, technological advances in this area are great allies, providing a higher long-term survival to patients under oncological treatment. When the relevant role that the woman performs in the social scenario as a citizen, professional and an integrant part of the family cell is recognized, the studies that deal with aspects related to the quality of life of these women, are especially relevant, such as the functional capacity (FC) shown by them during treatment. Purpose: assess FC in women with a diagnosis of gynecological cancer, breast cancer and gestational trophoblastic disease, during the chemotherapy treatment in a clinical hospital. Methodology: observational and retrospective study in a quantitative approach and longitudinal delineation. Two instruments were used for the collection of data: the first is related to the accompanying instrument of patients who are submitted to antineoplastic chemotherapy, with socio-demographic and clinical characterization, and the second refers to the instrument known as the Karnofsky index, used in this study to assess the FC of patients with a diagnosis of gynecological cancer, breast cancer and gestational trophoblastic disease, during the chemotherapy treatment. Results: 438 women took part in the research, in which the majority, 78 (35%), were between 41 and 50 years old, and the tumor type was the breast cancer. Concerning the treatment, a great part of the patients had more than one therapeutic modality; 206 (47%) had as their protocol basis anthracycline chemotherapy, and 376 (85.8%) made use of more than one chemotherapeutic medication. It was possible to observe that during the whole treatment, the FC of the population under study showed an average score around 70 relating the Karnofsky index, maintaining similarity in the evolution of a decline in the FC among the patients and showing that they were not able to carry out their daily activities or to take on any active job, limiting themselves to activities related to self-care. There was a higher impact in the decline of the FC related to old age patients with a diagnosis for gynecological cancer and submitted to chemotherapy as the sole treatment, and those submitted to the use of protocols using taxane chemotherapy drugs. Attention was also paid to the use of protocols based on taxane drugs during the beginning of the chemotherapeutic treatment and the diagnosis of gynecological cancer, as influential factors in the functional decline. Conclusion: it is opportune to establish measurements which are able to guarantee the prevention of side effects caused by the chemotherapeutic treatment, apart from the control of the signs and symptoms shown due to the illness, with the purpose of managing the FC, providing comprehensive assistance with quality to the oncological patients. Thus, by means of team work it is fundamental to provide them with more quality of life during the therapeutic chemotherapy.