title: Health-related quality of life among disease-free stomach cancer survivors in Korea.
abstract: Previous studies about the quality of life (QOL) in stomach cancer survivors focused on selected clinical parameters and did not consider the broader implications for overall health and QOL. We evaluated the impact of demographic and treatment-related factors on the QOL of stomach cancer survivors. We asked 391 stage I-III stomach cancer survivors who had been disease-free for at least 1 year after surgery to complete a demographic questionnaire, the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 questionnaire, and its stomach module, QLQ-STO22.Survivors undergoing total gastrectomy reported greater eating restrictions than those undergoing subtotal gastrectomy. Receiving chemotherapy or radiotherapy did not significantly affect any QLQ-C30 or QLQ-STO22 scores. Role and emotional functioning improved with increasing age, and stomach-specific symptoms (pain, eating restrictions, and anxiety) lessened. Compared with female survivors, male survivors had better physical and role functioning. Smoking status was also a significant negative predictor of physical functioning and anxiety. Comorbidities and selected demographic characteristics had a greater effect than type of treatment on the QOL of post-operative stomach cancer patients.
authors.affiliation: Research Institute and Hospital, Quality of Cancer Care Branch, National Cancer Center, 809 Madu-dong, Ilsan-gu, 411-769 Goyang, Gyeonggi, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Moon
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Bae
authors.forename: Sung
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Young-Woo
authors.initials: YW
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Keun Won
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Ryu
authors.forename: Jun Ho
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Jae-Hyung
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Noh
authors.forename: Tae-Sung
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.forename: Seong-Kweon
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Hong
authors.forename: Sang Min
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Chang Hoon
authors.initials: CH
authors.lastname: You
authors.forename: Jung Hee
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Myung Kyung
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Young Ho
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Yun
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality / Q000601:surgery*; D017741:Survivors