Supporting women undergoing radiotherapy for cervical cancer: A pilot intervention.

Background: Cervical cancer is the second most common cancer among women in South Africa. Treatment is tailored but external beam radiation and brachytherapy with or without concomitant chemotherapy are commonly used.

Aim: This study aimed to pilot test a support programme for women receiving curative radiotherapy for cervical cancer.

Setting: The Radiation Oncology Department at an academic hospital in the Gauteng province.

Methods: An intervention design and pre-test post-test approach was used. The primary outcome was perceived social support and the secondary outcome was quality of life (QoL). Census sampling entered 56 women in the programme but only 15 completed it. The Berlin Social Support Scale (BSSS) and EORTC QOQ-CX24 served as data collection instruments. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data using a completer only approach.

Results: The majority of both the pre-intervention (n = 56) and post-intervention (n = 15) groups were older than 40 years (62.5%, n = 35 and 73.4%, n = 11, respectively). Most of the support categories except for 'support seeking' showed statistical significant differences before and after the programme. Symptom experience had the highest mean score of the symptoms scales both before and after the programme (M = 50.7 and 41.8, respectively).

Conclusion: Positive results were obtained in terms of support, but QoL did not show the same trend. However, it would be feasible to refine the programme and conduct a second pilot test.

Contribution: Our study seems to be the first of its kind and illustrates the positive influence a support programme can have on the lives of women receiving radiotherapy for cervical cancer.