PALLIATIVE CARE NEEDS OF WOMEN WITH ADVANCED BREAST CANCER AT ONCOLOGY CENTER MANSOURA UNIVERSITY, EGYPT.

Advanced breast cancer also called metastatic breast cancer, a breast cancer that has extend from the breast to other organs in the body as lungs, liver, bones and brain. Women with advanced breast cancer needs a special care called as a palliative care needs related to psychological, social, spiritual, physical and educational aspects. Aim of the study is to assess palliative care needs of women with advanced breast cancer. Methods:a descriptive cross sectional design was used in this study. A convenient sample of 100 women with advanced breast cancer was selected. TheTool used divided into two parts including demographic data, palliative care needs of women with advanced breast cancer. Setting: This study was conducted in inpatient department and outpatient clinics at Oncology Center Mansoura University (OCMU).Results: The results of this study revealed that women identified the greatest areas of palliative care needs in relation to poor activity of daily living (41%), the majority of the studied women had poor psychologicalissues (98%), all of them had poor financial issues and additional expenses (100%),the highest percentage of them had severe physical issues (85%),about two third of them had poor self-dependence issues (69%) and poor educational issues (73%). Conclusions:This study indicates that women with advanced breast cancer have high levels of palliative care needs, especially in relation to the areas of activity of daily living, psychological, physical, financial, self-dependence and educational issues that requiring interventions aimed at meeting palliative care needs of women with advanced breast cancer. Advanced breast cancer have statistically significant high levels of palliative care needs.