[Features of home care for patients with advanced breast cancer]

We examined the features of home care for patients with noncurable breast cancer. The patients were 21 women with advanced breast cancer who entered the home care program between April 1987 and May 2001. The first feature was that their young age: six of them were in their forties, five were in their fifties, and the mean age was 57.4 years old. The second feature was that the period home care was provided was long. The mean duration of home care from the beginning to their death was 143 days. This was because the period of sickness and the period until the breast cancer's relapsing were both long. The mean period until the relapse was 2.3 years, and the mean period of sickness was 4.1 years. The third feature was the great variety of symptoms. It is this cause that there are a lot of metastasis organs. The fourth feature was that no special treatment, such as infusion therapy, was really necessary to alleviate the symptoms. Pain control was important because there were a lot of patients whose main complaint was pain. However, pain could be controlled with morphine. In conclusion, if it is excluded not to have the nursing power because the age is generally young, home care can be comparatively offered to the person who has an advanced breast cancer for a long term.