Depression, fatigue, and health-related quality of life in head and neck cancer patients: a prospective pilot study.

Purpose: To assess the prevalence of depression and fatigue symptoms in head and neck cancer patients during radiotherapy treatment and relate them symptoms with these patients' quality of life.

Method: This is a prospective study. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Piper Fatigue Scale-revised and Functional Assessment Cancer Therapy Head and Neck (FACT-H&N) were applied to 41 head and neck cancer patients at three times: at the start of treatment (T1), approximately 15 days after the start of treatment (T2) and at the end of treatment (T3), approximately 30 days after the start of the radiotherapy.

[Relationship between spirituality and cancer: patient's perspective].

Objective: to understand the relationship between spirituality and cancer under cancer patients' perspective.

Method: qualitative study, with the participating of fourteen cancer patients under chemotherapy treatment and analyzed according to inductive thematic content analysis.

Results: reports were organized into three categories: cancer diagnosis, faith for coping to the cancer, the search for cancer cure.

Standard Operating Procedure: use in nursing care in hospital services.

This is a descriptive and quantitative study, carried out in three hospitals in the Northwest of São Paulo, Brazil. It aimed to verify the existence and use of Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) by nursing teams. SOPs describe each critical and sequential step of a task to ensure its expected result.