Menopausal symptoms inversely associated with quality of life: findings from a 5-year longitudinal cohort in Chinese breast cancer survivors.

OBJECTIVE

This study assessed menopausal symptoms (MPS) after breast cancer in relation to quality of life (QoL) during the first 5 years of survival.

METHODS

An ongoing prospective study enrolled 1,462 Chinese women with early-stage breast cancer. They were longitudinally followed up at four time-points, namely baseline, 18-, 36-, and 60-month after diagnosis. At each follow-up, Menopause Rating Scale (MRS) and European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 were used to assess MPS and QoL, respectively.

RESULTS

In total, 1,462, 1,289, 1,125, and 1,116 patients were included into the analyses at baseline, 18-, 36-, and 60-months, respectively. The percentages of patients with no or little, mild, moderate, and severe MPS at baseline were 31.8%, 30.0%, 30.4%, and 7.7%, respectively; the corresponding figures at 18-, 36-, and 60-month follow-up were similar. Using data from four follow-ups, Generalized Estimating Equations analyses showed that MPS was inversely associated with QoL. Higher MRS scores were related to lower QoL scores. For instance, every 1 point increase in MRS score was associated with a 1.5 point decrease in global health status/QoL score (P < 0.01). In terms of symptoms, higher MRS scores were related to more severe symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS

This study highlighted patients with more severe MPS tend to have worse QoL. Future investigation should be conducted to assess different means of alleviating MPS to improve patient's QoL.