Unmet Supportive Care Needs of General Cancer

Purpose Aside from their oncology condition, cancer patients often experience many ancillary problems, including negative physical symptoms, social isolation, spiritual suffering, and often psychological distress. Supportive care services can be defined as services designed to help patients, their families, and caregivers with their experiences during the diagnosis, treatment, follow-up, and palliative stages of the cancer journey. In an extensive review of the literature, we identified no previous studies that have investigated the SCNs of cancer patients in Iraq or any other Middle Eastern countries. Therefore, this study aims to determine the SCNs of cancer patients in Iraq. Methods The present cross-sectional study and data was conducted in Rezgary teaching and Nankaly Oncology Hospital in the Kurdistan Federal Region of Iraq. A total of 300 eligible cancer patients were invited to participate in the study from February to August, 2018. Eligibility criteria included: 18 years or above; having a definite diagnosis of any type of cancer; physically or mentally able to participate in the study; and being aware of exact diagnosis for at least three months. Results In 15 items of the SCNs, more than 60% of the participants reported that their needs were unmet. Most frequently, unmet needs were related to health system and information, physical and daily living, psychological, and patient care and support domains, and most met needs were related to physical and daily activity domains. Conclusions Kurdish cancer patients had many unmet needs and there is a need for establishing additional supportive care services and educational programs to increase quality of life in Kurdistan Region- Iraq.