An evaluation of the quality of life among long-term survivors of breast cancer

“…Given this finding, it can be argued that attention should be paid to the patients not only during their hospital stay and when they are receiving chemotherapy, but also after disease remission and completion of therapy. [47][48][49] For long-term aftercare, this means that patients should be screened for fatigue regularly, ideally by clinical interview, supplemented with short questionnaires such as the MFI-General Fatigue subscale.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fatigue in ovarian carcinoma patients

Holzner

Kemmler

Meraner

et al. 2003

Cancer

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BACKGROUNDAlthough fatigue is a commonly reported symptom in cancer patients it is rarely investigated, especially in patients with ovarian carcinoma. The main focus of the current study was to assess fatigue in these patients and to investigate the impact of fatigue and other clinical and psychosocial variables on their quality of life (QOL).METHODSNinety‐eight ovarian carcinoma survivors (average age of 57.4 ± 12.5 years) were included in the study. All women had received cancer therapy but had not been treated for at least 6 months. The average time elapsed since first diagnosis was 5.7 ± 5.5 years. Fatigue was measured with the Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI‐20) and QOL was measured with the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT)‐ovarian carcinoma part and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Care Questionnaire, including the ovarian carcinoma module.RESULTSThirty‐two of 98 ovarian carcinoma patients (32.7%, 95% confidence interval, 23.5–42.9%) reported MFI‐20 General Fatigue scores ≥ 12.0 and therefore could be characterized as suffering from fatigue. This group of patients had a significantly lower QOL, had higher scores of anxiety and depression, and perceived that they had less social support. In a multiple regression model, mental adjustment, social support, anxiety, and depression as well as fatigue were significant predictors of QOL (FACT‐generic part total score) whereas clinical and sociodemographic variables were not.CONCLUSIONA remarkably high proportion of ovarian carcinoma survivors suffered from fatigue. Because this symptom is a key predictor of QOL, it should be given more attention in aftercare programs. Cancer 2003;97:1564–72. © 2003 American Cancer Society.DOI 10.1002/cncr.11253

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“…Some studies have described long-term impairment of QoL, impaired functioning, and continuing symptoms [42,43], as well as a high percentage of distress in breast cancer survivors [16,35], whereas others have reported an improving QoL over time [21,44]. Arndt et al [43] compared breast cancer patients with reference data from the general population.…”

Section: Change Of Qolmentioning

confidence: 99%

Personality traits and psychosocial stress: quality of life over 2 years following breast cancer diagnosis and psychological impact factors

Engel²,

et al. 2009

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Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate changes in the quality of life (QoL) and body image among breast cancer patients over 2 years and to examine different predictive factors for QoL 2 years after the primary operation.Methods: A total of 203 women with a primary diagnosis of breast cancer completed the questionnaires 2 weeks and 6, 12, 18, and 24 months after surgery. Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30), Breast Cancer Specific Quality of Life Questionnaire Module (QLQ-BR23), Questionnaire on Stress in Cancer Patients (QSC-R23), Freiburg Personality Inventory (FPI-R), Life Orientation Test (LOT) were used as standardized measures.Results: The overall QoL and most functional and symptom scales improved during the 2-year period. However, cognitive functioning, body image, and the three symptom scales of insomnia, constipation, and diarrhea did not change. Age was only capable of predicting physical functioning, whereas tumor size, axillary surgery, and adjuvant chemotherapy were not predictive of the long-term QoL functional scores. Initial distress was the most potent predictive factor for long-term QoL. Baseline functioning predicted functional QoL scores 2 years later. And higher scores for neuroticism were associated with a poorer QoL. However, optimism was not capable of predicting the QoL 2 years later.Conclusion: Screening measures should be implemented at the time when breast cancer is diagnosed, in order to identify psychologically vulnerable patients and offer them professional psycho-oncological help.

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An evaluation of the quality of life among long-term survivors of breast cancer

Abstract: breast cancer survivors experienced long-term changes after completion of treatment which affected overall quality of life. However, many positive benefits were also gained which helped to balance the worse outcomes.

Cited by 326 publications

References 29 publications

Normative data for functional assessment of cancer therapy General scale and its use for the interpretation of quality of life scores in cancer survivors

Normative data for functional assessment of cancer therapy General scale and its use for the interpretation of quality of life scores in cancer survivors

Fatigue in ovarian carcinoma patients

Personality traits and psychosocial stress: quality of life over 2 years following breast cancer diagnosis and psychological impact factors

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