Quality of Life in Pediatric Oncology Patients in Lebanon (2014-2019): A Multi-center Study

Aim Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in pediatrics worldwide. The present study aimed to assess the quality of life (QOL) of pediatric oncology patients diagnosed within the last five years at Lebanese hospitals, and who are residing in Lebanon. Methods Pediatric oncology patients were asked to fill out a questionnaire collecting data on personal information, disease status, and QOL using the EORTC-QLQ-C30 (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer-Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30-item version) after receiving their guardian's consent. IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 25 (Released 2017; IBM Corp., Armonk, NY, USA) was used for statistical analysis. Results The study enrolled 146 patients; 82 (56.2%) were boys. The mean age was 11.39 ± 3.90 years. Significant statistical correlations were found between the mother's educational level and physical functioning (p-value = 0.006), the number of siblings and each cognitive functioning (p-value = 0.025), and financial difficulties (p-value < 0.0001). The father's salary was statistically correlated with the patient's emotional and social functioning and financial difficulties (p-value < 0.05). The type of treatment had a significant effect on cognitive functioning and financial difficulties (p-value < 0.05), with chemotherapy patients having lower scores for financial burden than combination therapy patients. A total of 77.4% (113 patients) had leukemia, 16 (11%) had lymphoma, and 17 (11.6%) had solid tumors. Solid tumor patients had higher cognitive functioning scores than leukemia patients (difference = 12.65 ± 4.74, p-value = 0.023). Conclusion Palliative care is needed to relieve the symptom burden and enhance the psycho-social functioning of pediatric oncology patients.