الفهرس 
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Abstract
Leukemia is the most common form of childhood cancer. Leukemia is an abnormal unrestricted proliferation of immature white blood cells in the bone marrow and certain blood forming tissues. These cells then infiltrate other tissues, particularly the liver, spleen, and lymph glands and replace functional cells with leukemic cells. Chemotherapeutic drugs are being administered to palliate symptoms, prolong life and cure several types of cancers, the side-effects experienced may be frightening, painful and often embarrassing to leukemic children. So, it seems valuable to provide information on self-care of the various side-effects experienced during chemotherapy. Therefore, the aims of this study were to identify side-effects of chemotherapy experienced by children with leukemia, find out patients self-care deficits (unmet needs) and to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching side-effect management technique (SEMT) for leukemic children.The study was conducted at In-patient and Out-patient pediatric units at El-Mansoura University Oncology Center. All school-age children with leukemia who attended the mentioned setting over a period of 6 months constituted the subjects (n=110), and fulfilled the following criteria. Children aged from 8-15 years and receiving second or more than second dose of chemotherapy. Data was collected on November 2011 and ended on April 2012. Three tools were used to elicit the necessary data. First a structural interview sheet included bio-social data of the child and data related to patient’s diagnosis and treatment. Second, self-care behavior questionnaire developed by Dodd, (1981) and modified by Ahmed, (1984), it was used to assess the patient’s self-care behavior before and after presenting SEMT for different side-effects. Third, performance status of the patient was determined on six points Karnovski scale. Data was analyzed using SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) version 15. Qualitative data was presented as number and percent. Wilcoxon single ranks test was used for comparison within group. P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.The results of the present study revealed the following: There was a statistically significant difference at 5% level between measures that were used before and after SEMT in most side-effects as anorexia, nausea and vomiting, alopecia, fatigue, stomatitis, bone pain, abdominal cramp, diarrhea, sleep pattern disturbance and headache.