Clinical, sociodemographic and cultural profile of chemotherapy abandonment in gastric cancer, Cusco 2020-2024

Abstract

Introduction: Gastric cancer continues to be one of the most lethal forms of neoplasia worldwide, with high rates of treatment dropout in low- and median-income countries, such as Peru. Objective: characterize the clinical, sociodemographic and cultural profile of gastric cancer patients who discontinued their chemotherapy treatment at Hospital Regional del Cusco between 2020 and 2024. Material and methods: a descriptive cross-sectional study
was conducted in a sample of 201 patients who discontinued chemotherapy without medical justification. Data were collected from clinical records using a validated form and analyzed with descriptive statistics in Stata 18 and RStudio. Results: from a total of 201 patients with gastric cancer who abandoned chemotherapy treatment between 2020 and 2024, the majority were male (55.7%), Quechua speakers (47.8%) and with a low educational level. Most frequent reasons for discontinuing treatment were the perception of healing (20.4%), patient’s voluntary
decision (16.9%) and death (14.9%). There were also barriers related with being in a functional state, age and alternative treatment used. Conclusion: These findings showcase the need for implementing integral strategies that include an intercultural, strengthen therapeutic education and improve effective access to oncological services.