Postoperative Quality of Life of Patients with Colon Cancer According to the Extent of Curative Colon Resection

Abstract

AbstractBackground: Surgery is the mainstay of treatment for colorectal cancers. However, the effect of resection extent on patient’s function and quality of life (QoL) should be clearly assessed before surgery.Methods: A retrospective study conducted on all consecutive patient with stage I-III colon cancer who underwent surgery at Department of Colorectal Surgery from January 2014 to January 2018. The EORTC QLQ-C30 was completed to assess functional capacity and quality of life in all patients free of recurrence.Results: The study population consisted of 57 male (45%) and the mean ± SD of age was 57.7 ± 13.2 years. Most patients (54%) underwent total colectomy. The mean ± SD of interval between operation date and filling questionnaire date was 41.8 ± 6.9. There was no statistically significant difference between this interval period and type of surgery (p value: 0.76). However, it was revealed that as this period gets longer the score is higher (α: 2.3, CI: 2.1-3.9, p value=0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that after adjusting for T and N stage, age and gender, the type of surgical resection is an independent risk factor of having lower global health status(OR:3.2, CI:2.9-7.6, p-value=0.03), financial difficulties(OR:1.4, CI:1.1-3.6, p value=0.022) and higher rates of fatigue (OR:2.4, CI:1.8-4.6, p value=0.006). Conclusion: It was found that as the larger segment of the colon is resected the worsening of global health status happens. So, the post-operative challenges toward coping with new functional capacity of resected bowel and QoL should be discussed with patient prior to surgery.

Keywords

• keywords: subtotal colectomy
• total colectomy
• colon cancer
• functional outcomes
• quality of life