A study of the relationships among the hepatocellular carcinoma patients, symptom distress, depression and quality of life

Zan-Ting Lu* 1 , Yi-Tseng Tsai 1

1 Department of Nursing, An Nan Hospital, China Medical University, Tainan, Taiwan

Because the early symptoms of liver cancer are barely noticeable, treatment is often delayed, and the treatments in the later stages are less effective. Consequently, liver cancer mortality ranks second among all the cancer mortalities in Taiwan. Patients with liver cancer may experience discomfort or loss of body functions after receiving hepatic chemotherapy or hepatic trans catheter arterial chemoembolization. In addition, these patients must bear the psychological stress of uncertain disease prognosis and a high cancer recurrence rate. Thus, they are prone to developing negative emotions such as hopelessness and depressed, undermining their quality of life. During the course of a disease, patients with liver cancer are prone to experiencing physiological discomfort and depression symptoms. Most related studies have investigated factors related to the physiological symptoms, depression, and quality of life of patients with liver cancer. However, few of them have explored depression and discomfort caused by the various types of treatment. In addition, no consensus has been reached concerning the factors that influence these patients’ quality of life. In this study, the symptom distress, depression, and factors influencing the quality of life of patients with mid- and late-stage liver cancer were examined in relation to various types of cancer treatment.