Effects of Skin Care Self-Management on Quality of Life in Advanced Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer Patients with Skin Toxicity during Targeted Therapy: a Longitudinal Study

Patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer need long term receiving targeted therapy. 90–100% of those receiving EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor will experiencing skin toxicities. These skin reactions can not be avoided but can be controlled. Healthcare professionals should understand the changing trajectories of skin toxicities. Skin care self-management is a continuous and dynamic process. In this process, patients must actively take the responsibility of disease self-care, change self-care behaviors and care skin in daily life. The goals of skin care self-management are alleviating severity of skin toxicity and avoiding dose-reduce or discontinued of EGFR-tyrosine kinase inhibitor. The skin care self-management program for this study is derived from a combination of Self-Efficacy Theory and Causal Model of Behavior Change. The purpose is explore the effect of skin care self-management on severity of skin toxicity, anxiety, depression, social function, skin care self- efficacy and quality of life in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients with skin toxicity during targeted therapy. This study is a three-year, two-group pretest-posttest longitudinal study. The study settings include chest wards and outpatient clinic of a medical center at northern Taiwan. The convenience sampling method is used to recruit 162 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer in this study. After pretest, each participant will be randomized to experimental or control group. The control group receives usual care. The experimental group will receive not only usual care but also a self-management program of skin care. The self-administrated questionnaires include scales of skin care self-efficacy, social function, Hospital Anxiety and Depression, Skindex-16 and EORTC QLQ-C30. The data will collect at pre-targeted therapy and 1, 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after the targeted therapy prospectively. The level of skin toxicity will assess by researcher each month. Early identification of skin toxicity during targeted therapy is useful to conceptualize the impact of skin toxicity on a health trajectory, as this provides a comprehensive means to link a patient’s past, present, and projected future health condition and places the patient’s health within a specific context.

Project ID:PC10608-1829
External Project ID:MOST106-2314-B182-004