Background and objectives: Chemotherapy does not only affect cancer cells; it also affects, to a greater or lesser degree, all
other cells in the body. This toxicity should be assessed according to its severity, frequency, and duration, taking into account
objective and subjective dimensions in its assessment. This assessment is a highly relevant aspect when providing care to
chemotherapy patients, mainly due to the impact of the treatment on the patient’s quality of life, as well as the vital risk it may imply
under certain circumstances. For all this, the objective of this study was to assess the relationship between chemotherapyassociated
adverse reactions and health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients.
Materials and methods: With this purpose, a descriptive cross-sectional study was developed on 110 breast cancer patients
who were treated with docetaxel, epirubicin, and cyclophosphamide.
Results: It is worth highlighting the negative effect of nausea, dysgeusia, peripheral neuropathy, loss of appetite, myalgia, and
peripheral edema on the quality of life. Likewise, it is worth mentioning peripheral neuropathy as the toxicity that affects a greater
number of quality-of-life indicators.
Conclusions: To sum up, it would be necessary to make health professionals aware of the importance of chemotherapyassociated
adverse reactions.
