Adolescents' understanding of chemotherapy-related adverse events: a concept elicitation study.
Fernanda Machado Silva-Rodrigues, Pamela S Hinds, Lucila Castanheira Nascimento
PMID 36351085WHAT IT FOUND
Adolescents with cancer could self-report chemotherapy adverse events in their own words, naming nausea, pain, fatigue, mucositis, and emotional changes, and linking symptoms to drugs and timing.
This supports asking them directly. It is not a treatment-effect study.
Key findings
01All adolescents reviewed at least six adverse events, on average 8.41, and described them autobiographically, including which chemotherapy drug caused which symptom.
02Physical adverse events were described in detail, including causes, timing, and triggers.
03Adolescents used 'depression' for chemotherapy-related sadness and discouragement, and linked sadness to hair loss and self-esteem.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The study included only 17 adolescents from three hospitals in Brazil, so the words and experiences may not represent all adolescents receiving chemotherapy. It was concept elicitation for an instrument, not a completed validated questionnaire or a test of whether asking improves care. Participants had different diagnoses, treatment protocols, disease stages, relapse status, and treatment durations, so descriptions varied. Adolescents with cognitive impairment were excluded, and eligibility was checked with staff and records, which may limit generalizability. The study did not analyze how common the adverse events were. Emotional changes were mostly reported when asked explicitly, so spontaneous reporting may be lower. Some participants may have misunderstood lack of appetite versus inability to eat because of language use.
Declared interests
No individual conflicts of interest are stated. Publication of this supplement was supported by PAHO/WHO. The article is from a doctoral dissertation and was supported by CNPq grant # GM/GD 140134/2017-4.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat this as a validated Brazilian Ped-PRO-CTCAE or as evidence that adolescent self-report improves outcomes. It is a concept elicitation study of 17 adolescents, and it did not analyze adverse event prevalence or test a treatment.