CANCER PATIENTS' EXPERIENCE OF BARRIERS TO PARTICIPATION IN CHEMOTHERAPY: A QUALITATIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS

Cancer is one of the main causes of death and disability in the world. One of the main ways to treat this disease is chemotherapy. Despite its importance, some patients neglect to do it. This study aimed to investigate the patient's experience of the obstacles to participating in chemotherapy.

The present study is a qualitative study that was conducted using in-depth and semi-structured interviews with 44 participants. The data were analyzed by conventional content analysis using MAXQDA version 10 software.

By analyzing the findings, there are nine subcategories including 1- lack of support from the surrounding environment, 2- cultural and social bottlenecks in front of chemotherapy, 3- personal helplessness of the patient, 4- personal beliefs of the patient, 5- non-compliance with the conditions of the disease and treatment, 6- economic conditions of the patient, 7- non-availability of appropriate treatment facilities, 8- Poor professional skills of the treatment staff, and 9- bad outcome despite the treatment. These subclasses were finally formed into three main classes: 1- lack of support from the surrounding environment, 2- Obstacles related to the patient, and 3- Obstacles related to treatment.

The experience of patients showed that there are three main obstacles against chemotherapy. Dealing with some of these obstacles requires education to the patient and family, as well as micro and macro changes at the level of medical centers. Others require structural changes in the culture of the society and the policies of the Ministry of Health.