Quality of life of Brazilian and Spanish cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy: an integrative literature review

OBJECTIVE: characterize the scientific production of Brazil and Spain in regard to methodological aspects and aspects of health-related quality of life experienced by cancer patients receiving chemotherapy in both countries. METHOD: integrative literature review was conducted using the following databases: CINAHL, MEDLINE, SCOPUS and CUIDEN and the electronic libraries PubMed and SciELO, conducted in September 2013. RESULTS: a total of 28 papers met the inclusion criteria. The synthesis of knowledge was presented in three categories of analysis: assessment of quality of life in different types of cancer; sociodemographic factors that influenced quality of life; and type of cancer and interventions that improve quality of life. Chemotherapy affects health-related quality of life and the most important factors were: age, sex, chemotherapy protocol, type of surgery, stage of the disease, educational level, and emotional intelligence. Complementary therapies such as acupuncture, guided visualization, prayers and exercise were positive and reduced side effects. CONCLUSION: the results showed a poor level of evidence, since 86% of the studies were cross-sectional descriptive studies; the instrument most frequently used to measure health-related quality of life was EORTC QLQ C-30 and more studies were conducted in Brazil than in Spain.