Background: Hemoglobin can be used as an indicator of a decline in nutritional status. Radiotherapy can lead to decreased nutritional status in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer. This study aimed to prove the existence of differences in hemoglobin concentration in nasopharyngeal cancer patients before and after radiotherapy.
Methods: This study used a retrospective design, whose sample were nasopharyngeal cancer patients who seek treatment at Dr Kariadi were taken vulnerable time in the years 2006-2010. The data has been retrieved and processed by using SPSS computer program. Analysis of data in this study included descriptive analysis and hypothesis testing. Test hypothesis using Wilcoxon test with data not normally distributed. Degree of significance is p ≤ 0.05.
Results: The variable data is not normally distributed, then the analysis used Wilcoxon test. This study found no significant differences in hemoglobin concentration in patients with nasopharyngeal cancer before and after radiotherapy with p 0.056.
Conclusion: There were no significant changes in hemoglobin concentration in nasopharyngeal cancer patients before and after radiotherapy in Dr. Kariadi.
Keywords: Hemoglobin content, Radiotherapy, Nasopharyinx cancer
