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Objective: To assess the relationship between dispositional optimism and quality of life in a sample of women with breast cancer. Our purpose is to know which aspects of quality of life are influenced by dispositional optimism and which are not, to improve the understanding of optimism and improve it when it’s necessary for the adaptation to the medical situation. Method: 50 women with breast cancer answered individually quality of life and dispositional optimism measures. Results: Dispositional optimism is significantly related to many aspects of quality of life. Women with breast cancer with high dispositional optimistic feel less anger, less pain, have less difficulties in their movements, feel less tiredness, sleep better, go on with theirs home tasks, feel more illusion and less fear. But in some aspects, like social function or fatigue, it seems more important not being pessimist than being optimistic. Conclusion: In congruence with previous reports, dispositional optimism is a predictor of quality of life preservation in women with breast cancer.

Caring for a relative with terminal cancer brings a series of problems in the family, work, financial and social arenas. These problems, in turn, cause a negative impact on the Quality of Life (QOL) of the patients’ primary caregivers, including their physical and psychological health. The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of an intervention based on Problem Solving Therapy on QOL, anxious and depressive symptoms and on the acquisition of self-care skills by terminal cancer patients’ primary caregivers. A repeated measures N=1 design was used on pre and post intervention measurements on Beck’s anxiety and depression inventories, the WHOQOL-Bref and a questionnaire on self-care expressly designed for the study. Results revealed clinically significant improvements on anxious and depressive symptoms and improvement on the participants’ QOL. Problem Solving Therapy resulted a viable and effective approach to cope with the problems posed by caring for a terminal patient and improving self-care skills. A possible drawback of the procedures includes a lengthy intervention howhich was not always commensurate with the survival time of the terminal patients.

Chemotherapy agents can cause a wide range of adverse effects. Taste related symptoms are a common toxicity of the chemotherapic agents like cisplatin, taxanes or cyclophosphamide. Although the loss of olfactory and gustatory function is not outwardly apparent, it affects the patient substantially in daily life. Subjective taste and smell changes is in 75% of cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Taste alterations have been incorporated in the National Cancer Institute Common Toxicity Criteria since 1999. There is evidence that this type of alterations in cancer patients negatively affect quality of life. It is very important to inform the patient about this adverse effect because the recovery process will be slow and may take many months. There is an urgent need for increased attention to this effect, both in research and in clinical practice.

Introduction: Due to scientific advances, there is a growing number of pediatric patients surviving cancer. In general, for children who suffer from central nervous system tumors, this survival is associated with secondary adverse effects, such as cognitive deficits. Objetive: To assess cognitive functions and quality of life in children with infratentorial and supratentorial brain tumors. Methods: An analytical observational and prospective study was conducted. The total sample consisted of 51 subjects. The following measurement instruments were used: Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children, Fourth Edition (WISC IV), Cognitive Assessment System (CAS), Test of Memory and Learning (TOMAL), Graffar Scale; and Peds Quality of Life 4.0 Results: The comparison of the results did not show significant differences between infratentorial and supratentorial tumor location. All patients that were evaluated in the post-cancer-treatment period reveled a similar significant impairment in all the areas studied compared with the level expected in the general population. The most severely affected cognitive functions were processing speed and attention span, mainly on the planning tasks. The findings also show that quality of life at school is severely affected in these children. Conclusions: This is a preliminary study whose results may define a general trend of neurocognitive status, analyzing its impact on quality of life of the study population an posing useful questions for future research.

El arte y la creatividad son conceptos que están comenzando a vincularse en los ámbitos sanitarios españoles. La clave para que puedan desarrollarse con todas sus potencialidades reside en la profesionalización de la educación artística. Los educadores artísticos utilizan el arte y la creación como mediadores en espacios de salud. Solo el reconocimiento y posicionamiento de estos profesionales en el organigrama de la salud en España pueden abrir posibilidades para la mejora de la calidad de vida de los pacientes.