Taste Alteration in Patients Receiving Chemotherapy

This study is aimed to determine factors that affect conditions of patients receiving chemotherapy in terms of experienced taste alteration. In this descriptive study, 184 patients receiving chemotherapy were included in the sample. Data were collected during the period of December 2013 to May 2014 using "Patient Characteristics Identification Form" and "Chemotherapy-induced Taste Alteration Scale (CiTAS)." The data were analyzed using SPSS 20 (SPSS Inc., Chicago IL, USA) statistical software in terms of number, percentage, Mann-Whitney U test, and Kruskal-Wallis H test. The mean age of the patients was 55.5±11.8 and 57.1% of them were female. The clinical diagnosis of the patients were most frequently breast cancer (n=46), colorectal cancer (n=45), and lung cancer (n=25). Furthermore, 37.5% of the patients were in clinical stage II; 15.8% of the patients received paclitaxel+herceptin and 14.1% received gemcitabine+cisplatin chemotherapy protocols. Data demonstrated significant differences in mean scores (p