HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG CANCER PATIENTS: ASSOCIATION WITH THE CANCER TYPE AND DISEASE PROGRESSION

Dr. Pankaj Mandale* and Dr. Nilesh Patel

ABSTRACT

Background: Health-related quality of life is a multidomain evaluation that analyses how the therapy and illness progression is impacting the patient’s wellbeing and general functioning. In the present study, we have evaluated the association of HRQoL with the type of cancer and the progression of the disease. Material and Methods: A total of 500 patients were included in this study. The data were collected systematically via the use of standardised instruments. The standard questionnaire used was EORTC-QLQ-C30 (version 3.0). Result and Observation: This study included a total of 500 patients. The higher number of patients (24.8%) had breast cancer, followed by GI tract cancer (20.6%), lung (19.6%), reproductive system (17%), head and neck (12.2%) and other (5.8%). Most of the participants had stage II and above and were diagnosed within 6-12 months. 20.2% of the participants were under palliative care, 26.4% were undergoing chemotherapy, and 24% had undergone surgery. The rest of the participants (29.4%) received radiation therapy treatments. The inter-relation between the QOL at different stages of cancer and types of cancer shows that various types of cancer and QOL do not significantly impact each other. Though f-values are small, there is less variability in the sample taken for the study at the significance level of 0.05. Conclusion: This present study reported that a maximum of the patients have average or low HRQoL. The type and location of cancer with the HRQoL of the patient showed no association.

Keywords: Health-related quality of life, cancer patients, age, gender, socio-demographic parameters.