PURPOSE
The purpose of this study were to investigate the self-reported quality of life and family burden and to examine the factors associated with the quality of life in patients with cancer.
METHODS
216 patients participated in the cross-sectional study. The European Group of Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and the Family Burden Scale were sent by mail to 2,000 cancer patients. Two hundred and sixteen patients answered the questionnaire. The stepwise multiple regression was conducted to analyze predictors of overall quality of life.
RESULTS
All subscales of EORTC QLQ-C30 were significantly correlated with family burden. The regression analysis of patients with cancer revealed some variables as significant predictors; performance, perceived severity, family burden, time since diagnosis, and sex.
CONCLUSION
The results offer a number of recommendations for future research and nursing practice focused on primary care for patients with cancer and their family for improving quality of life.

PURPOSE
This study was performed to understand the perceived importance and performance frequencies of nursing interventions and identify the core and major interventions in oncology units.
METHODS
Questionnaires using 151 nursing interventions were given to 45 nurses. The performance frequency was measured through the database of the nursing process recording system for 1 year.
RESULTS
The perceived importance of the nursing interventions averaged out to be 3.5 among 4 and on average 36.5 times of nursing interventions were performed on each patient. Fifteen core nursing interventions including 'pain management' were identified and they made up 82.7% of the entire performance frequency rate. And 26 interventions including 'drug administration: Amphotericin-B' were identified as major nursing interventions and occupied 10.6% of the entire performance frequency rate.
CONCLUSION
Since the core and the major nursing interventions were identified and these occupied 93.3% of the all nursing interventions, these results can be utilized as baseline data for establishing the guidelines and standards of nursing interventions and providing systematic education for oncology nurses in Korea.

This study was conducted to develop and evaluate guidelines for cancer patients' symptoms management such as nausea/vomiting, fatigue, constipation, diarrhea, and oral mucositis. Based on the literature review, assessment path to identify each stage of five symptoms were also developed. Guidelines for symptom management of each stage of the symptoms were developed. Guidelines then were evaluated by a panel of experts. Finally, 95 cancer patients were recruited and asked to use the guidelines for their symptom management Levels of understanding of and satisfaction with assessment path and management guidelines were surveyed. Prevalence rate of five symptoms varied ranging from 20% (diarrhea) to 47% (nausea/vomiting). Regarding the level of understanding of each symptom most of the cancer patients indicated that they were easy and sufficient. Regarding the easiness of use of the symptom management guidelines, most of cancer patients indicated that they were easy to use. Regarding the nursing intervention on each symptom, most of cancer patients indicated that they were easy and helpful. More information was added with feedback from the patients. The result of this study has implications on development of customized patient education materials based on assessment path and symptom management guidelines.