Quality of Life (QoL) Among Patients with Esophageal Cancer Using Validated European Organisation for Research and...

Esophageal cancer has extremely aggressive nature and poor survival rate. An important Patient-Reported Outcome (PRO) indicator for assessing various clinical care pathways is quality of life (QoL). The objective of this study is to determine QoL among patients with esophageal cancer in a public sector hospital in North-East India. This prospective, cross-sectional study consisted of patients with esophageal cancer who sought oncology services between 14th July 2022 and 14th September 2022 at a tertiary public sector hospital. Validated European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer [EORTC] QLQ-C30 Version 3.0 and EORTC QLQ-OES18 questionnaires were used to measure QoL. Among 57 patients, 98.2% patients had squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) where 64.9% had advanced disease. Mean scores were lower (compared to reference value) for global health (mean, 55.0; patients with unfavourable QoL [uQoL], 43.9%), physical function (mean, 68.7; uQoL, 52.6%), and role function (mean, 47.0; uQoL, 64.9%) and much higher symptom burden (fatigue, 57.9%; pain, 59.6%) was reported among our patients. Dysphagia was the major symptomatic burden (93.0%) in our patient. Patients with advanced stage disease had poor functional scores (physical functioning: stage II, 72.6; stage IVA, 64.5) and high symptom scores compared to early-stage disease. Significant association was found in regard to higher risk of dysphagia, reflux, and pain in advanced stage patients when compared to early-stage patients. The overall QoL in patients with esophageal cancer was poor. Patients with advanced cancer stage had poor QoL compared with early-stage cancer patients. Further studies in a homogenous group will guide future treatment.