Quality of life assessment during adjuvant and salvage chemotherapy for advance stage epithelial ovarian cancer.
OBJECTIVE
This report assessed the quality of life of ovarian cancer patients undergoing adjuvant and salvage chemotherapy treatment.


METHODS
All epithelial ovarian cancer patients requiring chemotherapy to manage their disease were recruited from university based gynecologic oncology clinics. Quality of life was measured using the FACT-O (Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Ovarian module version 4) questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and two-way analysis of variance were used to compare the effect on the mean quality of life scores with respect to the indications of chemotherapy and best radiologic response. Any P value of less than 0.10 was considered worthy of interest.


RESULTS
Ninety-three patients participated. In the adjuvant setting, there was a trend towards better quality of life with better response to therapy. In patients with a first recurrence, complete response to therapy clearly had a beneficial effect on overall quality of life compared to stable or partial response. There was no significant quality of life difference between those with partial response versus stable disease in a first recurrent setting. In patients with more than one recurrence, no large change in overall quality of life was observed across the range of tumor responses.


CONCLUSIONS
Chemotherapy is beneficial to improve quality of life of ovarian cancer patients. Differential effect of tumor response status on quality of life at different treatment phases requires further investigations.
Le
T
T
Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa General Hospital, 501 Smyth Road, Room 8130, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. tle@ottawahospital.on.ca
Hopkins
L
L
Kee Fung
M Fung
MF
D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001952:Bridged-Ring Compounds / Q000008:administration & dosage; D017024:Chemotherapy, Adjuvant; D004847:Epithelial Cells / Q000473:pathology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000523:psychology; D009944:Organoplatinum Compounds / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010051:Ovarian Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D011788:Quality of Life; D011859:Radiography; D016879:Salvage Therapy; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D043823:Taxoids / Q000008:administration & dosage; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D001952:Bridged-Ring Compounds; D009944:Organoplatinum Compounds; D043823:Taxoids; C080625:taxane