Iranian Journal of Rehabilitation Research in Nursing

Introduction: Cancer is one of the major health issues in Iran and the world. Due to the nature of the disease, many cancer patients need palliative care. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life of breast cancer patients referred to Shohada hospital after receiving palliative and support care.

Methods: This study had a cross-sectional design. The study population included all patients with metastatic breast cancer, who were receiving palliative and support care involving nutrition, pain, spiritual therapy, surgery, complementary medicine, wound care, psychiatric, psychological counseling and rehabilitation at Shohada hospital during the period from the beginning of September 2013 to the beginning of September 2014.

Results: The findings showed that 31% of breast cancer patients, who received palliative and support care, had good quality of life, 18% had relatively good quality of life and 51% had poor quality of life. Also, 46% of participants in emotional function, 42% in physical function, 36% in cognitive function, 35% in social functioning and 29% in role functioning had unfavorable status.

Conclusions: According to the results, palliative and supportive care had no significant effect for improving the quality of life in patients with breast cancer. However, in some areas of functional aspects of quality of life such as role function, cognitive function and social function, there was a reduction in some signs and symptoms such as nausea, vomiting and constipation.