%0 Journal Article
%T Medical visits for chemotherapy and chemotherapy-induced neutropenia: a survey of the impact on patient time and activities
%A Barry V Fortner
%A Kurt Tauer
%A Ling Zhu
%A Theodore A Okon
%A Kelley Moore
%A Davis Templeton
%A Lee Schwartzberg
%J BMC Cancer
%D 2004
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-2407-4-22
%X We surveyed patients to assess how clinic visits for treatment with chemotherapy and the management of neutropenia affect their time and activities.The mean amounts of time affected by these visits ranged from approximately 109 hours (hospitalization for neutropenia) and 8 hours (physician and chemotherapy) to less than 3 hours (laboratory and treatment with filgrastim or pegfilgrastim). The visits for filgrastim or pegfilgrastim were comparable in length, but treatment with filgrastim requires several visits per chemotherapy cycle and treatment with pegfilgrastim requires only 1 visit.This study provides useful information for future modelling of additional factors such as disease status and chemotherapy schedule and provides information that should be considered in managing chemotherapy-induced neutropenia.Cancer is a devastating disease that affects patients' quality of life. The treatment of cancer also causes problems for patients, such as nausea and vomiting, anemia, and neutropenia [1-6]. Moreover, a diagnosis of cancer necessitates a large number of medical visits for monitoring the disease, treating it, and providing supportive care.The treatment of cancer may require that patients visit an outpatient clinic numerous times over a course of months or years. Those patients who have employment often have to take time off work for long periods to be treated and have to shift many of their activities and responsibilities because of the time required for treatment. Patients spend time preparing, travelling to the clinic, waiting at the clinic, and travelling from the clinic. These visits affect their normal life activities both in the time taken away from those activities and in their associated costs, such as lost work time. In addition, there can be logistical challenges in transportation and living arrangements and disruptions of work and daily living. The stress associated with these visits can also affect their psychological outlook.The number of medical vis
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-2407/4/22