title: A follow-up study of the quality of life in cancer patients with different prognoses.
abstract: The present study examines differences in quality of life between two points in time in a heterogeneous sample of cancer patients with different prognoses. The original sample comprised 253 patients, while the follow-up data obtained 3-4 years later included 75 patients, that is, 92% of the survivors. All the patients completed a questionnaire including the EORTC QLQ-C30. The research questions focus on overall changes in quality of life, and whether patients with a good prognosis would show less negative changes in quality of life than patients with a poor prognosis. The overall observed changes in quality of life were surprisingly small over a 3-4 year period. This study shows that prognoses do predict changes in social functioning and in some physical aspects of quality of life over a 3-4 year period after the assessment of prognoses by physicians. Prognoses did not, however, predict changes in psychological aspects of quality of life.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway.
authors.forename: G I
authors.initials: GI
authors.lastname: Ringdal
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ringdal
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D009664:Norway; D011379:Prognosis; D011788:Quality of Life; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*