Abstract: Objective: To investigate the occurrence of symptom clusters in breast cancer patients living at home after chemotherapy and to analyze the influencing factors. Methods: A total of 353 breast cancer patients who discharged after chemotherapy from eight hospitals in Hunan province were investigated. The M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory was used to investigate the occurrence of symptoms of breast cancer patients. Results: There were two symptom clusters in breast cancer chemotherapy patients living at home, namely perceptual symptom cluster and digestive-sleep symptom cluster. The results of multiple linear regression analysis showed that age, satisfaction of care needs, and discharge with medication were the factors affecting the symptom clusters. Conclusion: Breast cancer patients suffer from a variety of symptoms at home after chemotherapy, and the symptoms affect each other and exist in the form of symptom clusters. In clinical nursing work, the management and intervention of patients' symptom clusters should be strengthened, so as to improve patients' self-management ability and quality of life.

Key words: breast cancer; chemotherapy; living at home; symptom cluster; symptom management