title: Quality of life in breast cancer sufferers.
abstract: Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to measure health-related quality of life (QOL) among patients with early stage cancer breast under curative treatment at department of oncology and nuclear medicine at Ain Shams University Hospitals. Identify factors affecting QOL among these patients. Design/methodology/approach - A cross-sectional study measured QOL among early stage female breast cancer (BC) patients and determined the main factors affecting their QOL. Three interviewer administered questionnaires were used. Findings - The physical domain mostly affected in BC patients and the functional domain least. Socio-demographic factors that significantly affected BC patients QOL scores were patient age, education, having children and family income. Specific patient characteristics include caregiver presence - a factor that affected different QOL scores. Age at diagnosis, affection in the side of the predominant hand, post-operative chemotherapy and difficulty in obtaining the medication were the disease-related factors that affected QOL scores. Originality/value - The final model predicting QOL for early stage female BC patients included age, education and difficulty in obtaining the medication as determinants for total QOL score. Carer presence was the specific patient characteristic that affected different QOL scores.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Ahmed Essmat
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Shouman
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Nahla Fawzy
authors.initials: NF
authors.lastname: Abou El Ezz
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology and Nuclear medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Nivine
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Gado
authors.affiliation: Department of Community, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt.
authors.forename: Amal Mahmoud
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Ibrahim Goda
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006304:Health Status; D006306:Health Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D011788:Quality of Life
keywords: Breast cancer; Clinical effectiveness; Health and safety; Quality of life