Upper Gastrointestinal Research, Department of Molecular Medicine and Surgery, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 76 Stockholm, Sweden.
Eur J Cancer. 2012 Jul;48(11):1602-7. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2011.10.026. Epub 2011 Nov 24.
Health-related quality of life (HRQL) has been recognised as an important outcome in clinical cancer research. A problem in HRQL studies is the lack of true baseline measures since patients already suffer from symptoms at time of diagnosis. The aim of this study is to provide valid reference values regarding symptoms common among oesophageal and gastric cancer patients, based on an unselected adult population.
In 2008 the EORTC QLQ-OG25 questionnaire was sent to randomly selected people in the adult Swedish population. Mean scores with standard deviation were calculated. Frequencies of symptoms were categorised into 'symptoms' or 'no symptoms'. The analyses were subcategorised for age groups, gender, and cancer diagnosis.
In total, 4910 (70.5%) people responded to the questionnaire. Reflux was reported by 22.5% of the population, 25.6% reported pain and discomfort in the stomach area, 25.5% dry mouth and 32.0% had trouble with coughing. Other symptoms were dysphagia (3.5%), odynophagia (5.1%), and trouble eating with others (2.9%). Reflux, pain and discomfort and dry mouth were more often reported among women, while trouble with coughing was overrepresented among men. The symptoms dry mouth and trouble with coughing increased with age in both sexes.
This comprehensive study is the first to provide reference values for the EORTC QLQ-OG25 questionnaire. These can be used as baseline surrogate in clinical research in oesophago-gastric cancer patients.
健康相关生活质量（HRQL）已被认为是临床癌症研究中的一个重要结果。HRQL 研究中的一个问题是缺乏真实的基线测量值，因为患者在诊断时已经出现症状。本研究旨在提供基于未选择的成年人群中常见于食管和胃癌患者的症状的有效参考值。
2008 年，EORTC QLQ-OG25 问卷发送给瑞典成年人群中的随机选择的人。计算了平均值和标准差。将症状频率分为“有症状”或“无症状”。分析分为年龄组、性别和癌症诊断的亚类。
共有 4910 人（70.5%）对问卷做出了回应。反流在人群中被报告为 22.5%，25.6%报告胃部疼痛和不适，25.5%口干，32.0%咳嗽有困难。其他症状包括吞咽困难（3.5%）、疼痛和吞咽困难（5.1%）以及与他人一起进食困难（2.9%）。反流、疼痛和不适以及口干在女性中更为常见，而咳嗽困难在男性中更为常见。口干和咳嗽困难这两种症状在两性中都随着年龄的增长而增加。
这项全面的研究首次为 EORTC QLQ-OG25 问卷提供了参考值。这些可以用作食管胃癌症患者临床研究中的基线替代物。
