Quality of Life in Gynecologic Cancer Patients before and after Chemotherapy

Abstract

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Gynecology cancer is one of the most important issues in oncology and social medicine. Quality of life assessment in gynecologic cancer patients helps to evaluate the effect of treatment and supportive interventions in these patients. The aim of this study was to assess the quality of life and its sub- scales in gynecologic cancer patients before and after chemotherapy and its related factors.METHODS: This cross–sectional study was performed on 54 gynecologic cancer patients who were selected with proposal sampling. Data were collected with demographic and FACT-G questionnaires in individual interview before and 3 months after chemotherapy for quality of life evaluation. The quality of life was evaluated in four subgroups: physical, socio-familial, emotional and functional health. The minimum and maximum score of overall quality of life was 0 and 108, respectively. FINDINGS: The mean age of patients was 54.70±13.80 years. The mean of physical, socio-familial, emotional, functional health and overall quality of life before treatment (61.69±18.48) was higher than after treatment (71.68 ± 16.38) (p<0.05). There was a relationship between age and overall quality of life after treatment (r = -0/42, p= 0.001). There was no significant difference between quality of life and marital status, education, job, economic status and type of cancer. CONCLUSION: Complete duration of chemotherapy treatment can cause the overall improvement of quality of life in gynecologic cancer patients. Patient perception of this leads to better acceptance of cancer treatment.

Keywords

• quality of life
• fact - g questionnaire
• gynecologic cancer