Factors affecting health-related quality of life in women with recurrent breast cancer in Korea.
OBJECTIVE
The purpose was to determine the effects of recurrent breast cancer on health-related quality of life (HRQOL).


METHODS
We administered the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23, McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) to 152 women experiencing recurrence 1 year after being diagnosed with stage I to III breast cancer. We classified recurrent women as post-, ongoing-, and non-treatment group and performed multivariate-adjusted analyses in HRQOL comparisons with data available from disease-free survivors and general population.


RESULTS
Groups not completing treatment were more symptomatic and had poorer functioning in HRQOL than the post-treatment group. Compared to the general population, the post-treatment group showed worse scores concerning role, cognitive, and social functioning, fatigue, and financial difficulties. The post-treatment group showed identical scores to disease-free survivors in most HRQOL domains; however, they reported less fatigue and depression than the disease-free group. Higher overall QOL was related to absence of comorbidity, completing treatment, being involved in decision making, no problems before surgery, and good overall medical care.


CONCLUSIONS
Treatment completed, most degraded aspects of HRQOL in recurrent breast cancer women can return to levels observed in disease-free survivors.
Lee
Myung Kyung
MK
Quality of Cancer Care Branch, Research Institute for National Cancer Control and Evaluation, National Cancer Center, 809 Madu-dong, Ilsan-gu, , Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 411-769, Korea. lawyun08@ncc.re.kr
Son
Byung Ho
BH
Hwang
Sook Yeon
SY
Han
Wonshik
W
Yang
Jung-Hyun
JH
Lee
Seeyoun
S
Yun
Young Ho
YH
D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000601:surgery; D002173:Cancer Care Facilities; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D003863:Depression / Q000209:etiology; D005221:Fatigue / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007723:Korea; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local / Q000523:psychology*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D018802:Patient-Centered Care; D011594:Psychometrics; D011788:Quality of Life; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D017741:Survivors / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome