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Quality of Life Assessment after Breast Cancer Treatment using EORTC QLQ-C30 and BR-23 Questionnaire: A Prospective
Maninderdeep Kaur1, Divya Dahiya2, Barsha Pantha2
1Department of Nursing, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, India.
Objectives:
The most prevalent malignancy among women worldwide is breast cancer (BC). While evaluating the effectiveness of treatment, the quality of life (QoL) of BC patients is crucial. The purpose of this study was to assess patients' QoL after receiving therapy for BC.
Materials And Methods:
This was a prospective study examining the QoL in BC patients following treatment completion, which included surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy. The study measured the QoL of 100 patients using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QoL Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its BC supplementary measure (EORTC QLQ-BR23) at three different points in time: 3 months, 1 year and 2 years after completing treatment. The patients were selected for the study using a purposive sampling technique. The socio-demographic and clinical data collected included age, education, marital status, disease stage and initial treatment. Descriptive analysis was made using frequency and percentages. For inferential statistics, a non-parametric test (Friedman test) was used for non-continuous data.
Results:
The average age of the patients was 46.9 ± 10.1 years, and the majority (82%) underwent mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The results indicated significant differences in patient functioning and overall QoL at three different points in time (p < 0.001). While there were declines in patients' scores for body image and sexual enjoyment, there were notable improvements in breast symptoms and systemic therapy side effects (p < 0.05). Across the functioning scale, physical, cognitive, emotional, social and role functioning all showed improvement. However, on the symptom scale, fatigue was the most common issue experienced by patients, even 2 years after treatment, followed by financial difficulties and arm symptoms.
Conclusion:
There was a significant improvement in the QoL after receiving BC treatment. However, fatigue and arm symptoms need supportive treatment on follow-up.
