FREQUENCY OF CHEMOTHERAPY, ENERGY INTAKE, CACHEXIA CONDITION AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF BREAST CANCER PATIENTS

Abstract

Breast cancer is a group of abnormal cells in the breast that continues to grow multiply. One treatment for cancer is chemotherapy. Cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy have several side effects, which is cachexia, anorexia, weight loss which causes the patient's nutritional status to drop dramatically. The study aims to describe the frequency of chemotherapy, energy intake, and nutritional status of breast cancer patients. It was observational research. The sample was 20 respondents using consecutive sampling technique. Energy intake is obtained through the food recall method. The frequency of chemotherapy and cachexia were obtained from medical records and interviews, nutritional status obtained from actual body weight measurements using digital scales and height measurement using microtia. The results show that the average age of respondents was 46.8 ± 9.63 years, the mean frequency of chemotherapy was 6.2 ± 5.74 times. The majority of respondents did not experience cachexia as many as 14 respondents (70%). The average energy intake was 627.7 ± 236.5 calories. The average nutritional status was 20.9 ± 3.11 kg / m2. The majority of respondents’ deficit energy intake but the majority of nutritional status is normal, the average frequency of chemotherapy >5 times but the majority do not experience cachexia..