Quality of life in patients with malignant diseases

Abstract

Background: Some patients with malignant diseases have difficulties in their physical functioning, social and emotional relationships and show symptoms of fatigue, pain and nausea, which can alter their quality of life. The aim of this research was to investigate the quality of life in patients with malignant diseases and assess differences between different diagnostic groups. Methods: Subjects were 129 patients: 29 patients with colon tumour, 39 women with breast cancer, 35 patients after laryngectomy and 25 patients with lymphomas. We used the Personal Welfare Index (PWI) as well as the EORTC QLQ-C30 version 3.0 questionnaire for the quality of life self-evaluation. Findings: The study shows that quality of life in patients with malignant disease are similar to those found in healthy population. There are no significant differences in quality of life in different diagnostic groups if measured with PWI. If we consider results obtained by EORTC QLQ, patients show some difficulties in different areas of functioning. They report symptoms of fatigue, nausea and financial difficulties, as the most present. Discussion: The results confirm that patients with malignant disease show some difficulties in various area of functioning, with emotional functioning being the lowest. Women with breast cancer show lowest results in all aspects of functioning and have highest rates of symptoms. Conclusion: Improving quality of life in patients with malignant disease requires multidisciplinary approach. Measures that assess difficulties related with specific disease can offer more information on problems those patients face, which can be useful in treatment and rehabilitation.