Financial Toxicity

Abstract

Objective: to identify evidence in the literature about financial toxicity in cancer patients during chemotherapy treatment. Methods: this is a mini review with search in the following databases: Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Latin American and Caribbean Health Sciences Literature, National Library of Medicine and Scopus. Articles were surveyed from July 2018 to February 2019 using the following descriptors and Boolean operators: “financial toxicity" OR “financial difficulties" AND “cancer" AND “chemotherapy". Results: the search totaled 64 articles. After exclusion of duplicates that did not meet the inclusion criteria, the final sample was composed of five articles published in 2013, 2015, 2017 and 2018. Financial difficulty caused by cancer treatment and its impact on quality of life was a frequent expression used in the studies. Conclusion: studies show that financial toxicity damages the quality of life of patients. A scarcity of studies on the subject was also observed, possibly because this is a new concept.