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Assessment of quality of life of patients with ovarian cancer treated by multidrug chemotherapy based on questionnaire-aided survey

Joanna Borowiak

Affiliacja i adres do korespondencji
GIN ONKOL 2006, 4 (2), p. 115-124
Streszczenie

The paper aims to assess the quality of life of patients with ovarian cancer treated by multidrug chemotherapy. Our material includes 383 females treated at the Department of Female Genital Neoplasms of the Centre of Oncology in Warsaw, Poland, since 2001 thru 2004. The study was performed based on the questionnaires QLQ-C30 and QLQ-OV28, supplied by the EORTC bureau in Brussels, Belgium. One subgroup included 280 patients receiving paclitaxel- and platinum-based chemotherapy regimens. Another subgroup of 103 women received Endoxan- and platinum-based chemotherapy. When assessing the patients’ quality of life, the following parameters were taken into account: age, clinical stage of neoplasm, completeness of surgical resection and treatment phase. The patients were questioned before institution of chemotherapy, in the middle of treatment (after 3 courses) and after termination of treatment. Based on the results obtained, we may state that clinical stage, completeness of resection and treatment phase have a significant influence on the patients’ quality of life, while type of chemotherapy had no impact on the quality of life parameters analysed. Very frequent disorders of emotional and social functioning of the patients usually took the form of reluctant attitude towards the disease and treatment, as well as a negative perception of own body. Predominance of psychological disorders over physical symptoms suggests that maybe a greater emphasis should be placed on psychological care of oncology patients.

Słowa kluczowe
ovarian cancer, quality of life, QLQ-C30 and QLQ-OV28 questionnaires, performance score, symptom score