Montazeri Ali, Vahdaninia Mariam, Harirchi Iraj, Ebrahimi Mandana, Khaleghi Fatemeh, Jarvandi Soghra
Iranian Institute for Health Sciences Research, ACECR, Tehran, Iran.
BMC Cancer. 2008 Nov 11;8:330. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-8-330.
Measuring quality of life in breast cancer patients is of importance in assessing treatment outcomes. This study examined the impact of breast cancer diagnosis and its treatment on quality of life of women with breast cancer.
This was a prospective study of quality of life in breast cancer patients. Quality of life was measured using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and its breast cancer supplementary measure (QLQ-BR23) at three points in time: baseline (pre diagnosis), three months after initial treatment and one year after completion of treatment (in all 18 months follow-up). At baseline the questionnaires were administered to all suspected identified patients while both patients and the interviewer were blind to the final diagnosis. Socio-demographic and clinical data included: age, education, marital status, disease stage and initial treatment. Repeated measure analysis was performed to compare quality of life differences over the time.
In all, 167 patients diagnosed with breast cancer. The mean age of breast cancer patients was 47.2 (SD = 13.5) years and the vast majority (82.6%) underwent mastectomy. At eighteen months follow-up data for 99 patients were available for analysis. The results showed there were significant differences in patients' functioning and global quality of life at three points in time (P < 0.001). Although there were deteriorations in patients' scores for body image and sexual functioning, there were significant improvements for breast symptoms, systematic therapy side effects and patients' future perspective (P < 0.05).
The findings suggest that overall breast cancer patients perceived benefit from their cancer treatment in long-term. However, patients reported problems with global quality of life, pain, arm symptoms and body image even after 18 months following their treatments. In addition, most of the functional scores did not improve.
评估乳腺癌患者的生活质量对于衡量治疗效果具有重要意义。本研究探讨了乳腺癌诊断及其治疗对乳腺癌女性患者生活质量的影响。
这是一项关于乳腺癌患者生活质量的前瞻性研究。使用欧洲癌症研究与治疗组织生活质量问卷（EORTC QLQ-C30）及其乳腺癌附加量表（QLQ-BR23）在三个时间点测量生活质量：基线（诊断前）、初始治疗后三个月和治疗完成后一年（总共18个月的随访）。在基线时，对所有疑似确诊患者进行问卷调查，患者和访谈者均对最终诊断不知情。社会人口统计学和临床数据包括：年龄、教育程度、婚姻状况、疾病分期和初始治疗。采用重复测量分析来比较不同时间点的生活质量差异。
共有167例患者被诊断为乳腺癌。乳腺癌患者的平均年龄为47.2（标准差=13.5）岁，绝大多数（82.6%）接受了乳房切除术。在18个月的随访中，有99例患者的数据可供分析。结果显示，患者在三个时间点的功能和总体生活质量存在显著差异（P<0.001）。尽管患者的身体形象和性功能得分有所下降，但乳房症状、系统治疗副作用和患者对未来的看法有显著改善（P<0.05）。
研究结果表明，总体而言，乳腺癌患者从长期癌症治疗中获得了益处。然而，患者报告称，即使在治疗后18个月，他们的总体生活质量、疼痛、手臂症状和身体形象仍存在问题。此外，大多数功能得分并未改善。
