title: Impact of external beam adjuvant radiotherapy on health-related quality of life for long-term survivors of endometrial adenocarcinoma: a population-based study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To compare the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) among 5-10-year survivors of Stage I-II endometrial (adeno-)carcinoma (EC) treated with surgery alone or surgery with external beam adjuvant radiotherapy (EBRT) and an age-matched norm population.
  
  
  METHODS
  A population-based, cross-sectional survey was conducted by the Eindhoven Cancer Registry. All patients were included who had been diagnosed with EC between 1994 and 1998 (n = 462). Information from the questionnaires returned was linked to data from the Eindhoven Cancer Registry on patient, tumor, and treatment characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Responses were received from 75% of the patients. The analyses were restricted to women with Stage I-II disease at diagnosis, treated with either surgery alone or surgery with adjuvant EBRT, and without recurrent disease or new primary malignancies (n = 264). The patients who had received adjuvant EBRT (n = 80) had had a significantly higher tumor stage and grade at diagnosis (p < 0.0001) and a longer mean time since diagnosis (p = 0.04). Age, number of comorbid diseases, current marital status, nulliparity, education, and occupation were similar for both treatment groups. On multivariate analyses, adjuvant EBRT was independently and negatively associated with the vitality and physical and social well-being scale scores. The HRQOL scores of both treatment groups, however, were similar to those of an age-matched norm population.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In general, the HRQOL of EC survivors is good. EC survivors treated with surgery alone had a better HRQOL than women treated with surgery and adjuvant EBRT, although for both groups, the HRQOL was in the range of the norm population.
authors.affiliation: Comprehensive Cancer Centre South (IKZ)/Eindhoven Cancer Registry, Eindhoven, The Netherlands. research@ikz.nl
authors.forename: Lonneke V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: van de Poll-Franse
authors.forename: Floortje
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Mols
authors.forename: Marie-Louise
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Essink-Bot
authors.forename: Joke E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Haartsen
authors.forename: Ad J J M
authors.initials: AJ
authors.lastname: Vingerhoets
authors.forename: Marnix L M
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Lybeert
authors.forename: Hetty A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: van den Berg
authors.forename: Jan Willem W
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Coebergh
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D000368:Aged; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D016889:Endometrial Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology / Q000532:radiotherapy* / Q000601:surgery; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D009426:Netherlands; D011788:Quality of Life; D018714:Radiotherapy, Adjuvant / Q000009:adverse effects; D012042:Registries; D012044:Regression Analysis; D017741:Survivors