Changes of quality of life after gastric cancer surgery

The aim of this study was to evaluate chronological change of quality of life after surgery in patients with gastric cancer during one year postoperatively.

Quality of life data were obtained from 272 gastric cancer patients who underwent curative gastrectomy between September 2008 and February 2011 at the Kyungpook National University Hospital. The Korean versions of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire Core (QLQ) 30 with gastric cancer-specific module, the EORTC QLQ-STO22 were used to assess quality of life. All patients had no evidence of recurrence or metastasis during the first postoperative year. Patients were asked to complete the questionnaire, by themselves preoperatively, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-months postoperatively.

Physical functioning score and role functioning score significantly decreased at first 3 months after surgery and the significant differences were noticed until 12 months after surgery. Emotional functioning score started with the lowest score before surgery and significant improvement was shown 6 months after surgery. Most symptom scores and STO-22 scores were highest at 3 months after surgery and gradually decreased, thereafter. Eating restriction, anxiety, taste, body image scores was highest at 3 months after surgery without significant decrease afterwards.

Most scales worsened after surgery and gradually recovered afterwards with some differences in rate of recovery. However the scales did not fully recover by 1 year period. Further follow-up after 1 year would be helpful in determining which scales are permanently damaged and which are just taking longer time to recover.