title: Quality of life and cancer-related needs in patients with choroidal melanoma.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess quality of life (QoL) indices and their associations with treatment modality, sociodemographics and cancer-related needs in choroidal melanoma patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients (N=99) treated at the University of California, Los Angeles, for choroidal melanoma within the prior 5 years (M=2.05) completed questionnaires assessing demographics, cancer-related needs, vision-specific QoL, depressive symptoms and concern about recurrence. Visual acuity, comorbidities, treatment modality (radiotherapy, enucleation) and years since diagnosis were gathered from medical records. Primary analyses were multiple regressions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Although concern about cancer recurrence was elevated, QoL was better than in other oncology samples and comparable with healthy samples on some outcomes. Enucleation was associated with worse vision-specific QoL, and presence of comorbid diseases was associated with worse vision-specific QoL, depressive symptoms and concern about cancer recurring (all p values<0.05). Patients who experienced at least one stressful life event in the past year (vs no events) reported more depressive symptoms (p<0.01). Report of more unmet cancer needs was associated with worse vision-specific QoL, depressive symptoms and more concern about recurrence (all p values<0.05), uniquely explaining 4%-12% of the variance.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  For choroidal melanoma patients, an average of 2 years after treatment, the number of physical comorbidities and unmet cancer needs were the strongest correlates of poorer QoL.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, , California, USA.
authors.forename: Joshua F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Wiley
authors.forename: Kelsey
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laird
authors.forename: Tammy
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Beran
authors.forename: Tara A
authors.initials: TA
authors.lastname: McCannel
authors.forename: Annette L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Stanton
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D002830:Choroid Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D015141:Los Angeles / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008545:Melanoma / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy; D008875:Middle Aged; D009364:Neoplasm Recurrence, Local; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D015996:Survival Rate / Q000639:trends; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014792:Visual Acuity; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: cancer; choroid neoplasms; quality of life
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