[A study on quality of life after thoracoscopic assistant lobectomy for lung cancer]

Conventional radical surgeries for lung cancer incur a large amount of trauma, thoracoscopic surgeries can reduce trauma, and hopefully improve patients' postoperative quality of life (QOL). The aim of this study is to evaluate the impact of thoracoscopic radical surgeries on quality of life of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Use Quality of Life-Core 30 Questionnaire (QLQ-C30) which was exploited by European Organization for Research and Treatment (EORTC) and Quality of Life-Lung Cancer 13 Questionnaire (QLQ-LC13) which is the supplementary questionnaire according to the lung cancer patients to evaluate QOL of 60 NSCLC patients in thoracoscopic surgery group and conventional surgery group from 3 days before operation to 24 weeks after operation.

A total of 215 questionnaires were collected from 60 patients; 25 postoperative questionnaires were not completed because patients could not be contacted for follow-up visits. QOL declined markedly in all patients at 3 days postoperatively; preoperative and 3-day postoperative global QOL scores in the conventional surgery and thoracoscopic surgery group were 87.8 ± 10.3 vs 38.3 ± 13.1 (P<0.001) and 82.7 ± 9.6 vs 56.3 ± 14.8 (P<0.001), respectively. Thereafter, QOL recovered gradually in all patients. Patients who underwent open surgery showed the most pronounced decline in QOL; global scores were lower in this group than in the thoracoscopic surgery group (P=0.012,9) at 3 days postoperatively and was not restored to the preoperative level at 24 weeks postoperatively (P=0.012,4). QOL declined less in patients undergoing thoracoscopic surgery, and most indices had recovered to preoperative levels at 24 weeks postoperatively.

With the advantages of small trauma, faster recovery and higher postoperative QOL, thoracoscopic surgery is a preferable lung cancer surgery.