title: [Radiotherapy in surgical and nonsurgical patients. Therapy expectations, quality of life and physician assessment].
abstract: The present study investigates patients' expectations toward radiotherapy and their associations to quality of life and physician judgements. Fifty-five patients with tumors of different sites (30 with previous tumor-related surgery, 25 without surgery) admitted to the department of radiotherapy filled out a standardized questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30, PLC by Siegrist et al., therapy-related expectations and success) before and after inpatient radiotherapy. The corresponding physician ratings were collected. Fifty-eight percent of the patients expected the therapeutic goal "healing", whereas from the physician's standpoint this was realistic in only 7% of cases. The specific radiotherapy-related expectations "tumor control" and "pain relief" reached almost the same levels in patients and physician (71% vs 71% and 40% vs 44%). Patients with healing expectancy reported higher quality of life at the beginning of the therapy (53.4% vs 39.9%); patients expecting pain relief reported lower quality of life (37.1% vs 54.5%). Surgical patients who had been operated on within the past year (n = 18) showed a particularly high healing expectancy (83%), whereas patients whose operation dated back more than 1 year focused on pain relief as therapeutic goal (83%). The surgeon, as the primary contact person for patients, can influence patients' therapy-related expectations. In explaining the overall therapeutic strategy, surgeons should also mention the scope and limits of adjuvant therapies.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung für Strahlentherapie, Klinikum der Philipps-Universität Marburg.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Koller
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Keil
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Trott
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Engenhart-Cabillic
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pfab
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lorenz
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D010043:Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care; D010166:Palliative Care; D010348:Patient Care Team; D011788:Quality of Life; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant
vernacular_title: Strahlentherapie bei chirurgischen und nichtchirurgischen Patienten. Therapieerwartungen, Lebensqualität und Arzteinschätzungen.