Health-related quality of life among disease-free stomach cancer survivors in Korea.
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.
Bae
Jae-Moon
JM
Research Institute and Hospital, Quality of Cancer Care Branch, National Cancer Center, 809 Madu-dong, Ilsan-gu, 411-769 Goyang, Gyeonggi, Korea.
Kim
Sung
S
Kim
Young-Woo
YW
Ryu
Keun Won
KW
Lee
Jun Ho
JH
Noh
Jae-Hyung
JH
Sohn
Tae-Sung
TS
Hong
Seong-Kweon
SK
Park
Sang Min
SM
You
Chang Hoon
CH
Kim
Jung Hee
JH
Lee
Myung Kyung
MK
Yun
Young Ho
YH
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