Complementary therapy and care to relieve pediatric cancer therapy-related symptoms in Thailand

Abstract

Patients undergoing treatment for cancer, whether it includes chemotherapy and/or radiation, experience many side effects that are linked to the treatment. The specific purposes of this study were to examine (a) what Thai parents report they do to help alleviate symptoms that the child experiences during cancer therapy; and (b) what categories of dependent care and/or complementary therapies were those methods reported. Orem’s self-care/dependent-care concept was used to guide the analysis of the care pediatric patients received. Secondary analysis was done of data collected from a larger study at the National Children’s Hospital in Thailand. The sample included children ages 5-17 years (N=100). Of the 100 patients, 71 were male and 29 female; while 75 patients were 5-11 years old, and 25 patients 12-17 years old. Cancer diagnoses can be divided into the following: 63% leukemia, 12% nervous system tumors, 10% solid tumors, 6% lymphoma, and 9% Other. The 34-item Therapy-Related Symptom Checklist for Children (TRSC-C) was used to record patients’ symptom occurrence/severity (0, no symptom; 4, “A whole lot”); and the Symptom Alleviation: Self-Care Methods (SA:SCM) tool was used to identify methods parents used to alleviate chemotherapy-related symptoms. To address the study purposes, descriptive data and content analyses were done. Symptom occurrence of 16 symptoms were reported by 45% or more of patients; and mean severity “2”, or “Quite a bit” of the top five reported symptoms included hair loss, nausea, vomiting, fever, loss of appetite. Of the six categories of self/dependent-care methods/complementary therapies, all were found useful; and, Diet/nutrition/life-style and Mind/Body Control were the most utilized. Assessing patient/parent-reported symptoms and use of self/dependent care and complementary therapies help Thai families cope during pediatric cancer treatments.