Quality of life in breast cancer survivors

A total of 400 breast cancer survivors were studied - 118 without metastasis, 160 with locoregional metastasis and 122 with distant metastasis. The European Organization for Research and Treatment for Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire--Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30), Breast Cancer-Specific (EORTC QLQ-BR23), and the Karnofsky Performance Scale (KPS) were used to evaluate FC and QoL.

Results:

Women with distant metastases presented lower KPS 75.3 (SD=12.5) (p<0.001). For QLQ-C30, the mean of the Functional Scale for patients with distant metastasis was 57 (SD=19) (p<0.001), and the mean of the Symptom Scale for patients with distant metastasis was 37 (SD=20) (p<0.001). Both the scales for pain and fatigue showed the highest mean in the groups. For the Global Health Scale, patients without metastasis scored a mean of 62 (SD=24) points, while those with locoregional metastases scored a mean of 63 (SD=21.4), and distant metastasis scored 51.3 (SD=24) points. In the group with distant metastases, 105 (87%) had pain, and the average KPS was 74 (SD=12.0) (p=0.001).

Conclusion:

Breast cancer was associated with decreased FC, compromised QoL in women with locoregional and distant metastases compared to those without metastasis.

Keywords:
survivors; breast neoplasms; quality of life; functional capacity

Variable	Presence of metastases	N	%	Mean	Standard deviation	p-value^* * Analysis of variance (ANOVA).	Comparison between groups with metastases	p-value^ Multiple Comparison Test (Turkey).
		KPS
Women with breast cancer	Without	118	29.5	90.5	9.7	<0.001	Without and locoregional	0.045
	Locoregional	160	40.0	87.5	8.8		Without and distant	<0.001
	Distant	122	30.5	75.3	12.5		Locoregional and distant	<0.001
		Functional Scale EORTC QLQ-C30
	Without	118	29.5	67.2	20.0	<0.001	Without and locoregional	0.996
	Locoregional	160	40.0	67.0	18.0		Without and distant	<0.001
	Distant	122	30.5	57.0	19.0		Locoregional and distant	<0.001
		Scale Global Health EORTC QLQ-C30
	Without	118	29.5	62.0	24.0	<0.001	Without and locoregional	0.896
	Locoregional	160	40.0	63.0	21.4		Without and distant	0.001
	Distant	122	30.5	51.3	24.0		Locoregional and distant	<0.001
		Symptom Scale EORTC QLQ-C30
	Without	118	29.5	22.1	16.3	<0.001	Without and locoregional	0.466
	Locoregional	160	40.0	25.0	16.0		Without and distant	<0.001
	Distant	122	30.5	37.0	20.0		Locoregional and distant	<0.001
		Symptom Scale EORTC QLQ-BR23
	Without	118	29.5	61.4	19.1	<0.001	Without and locoregional	<0.001
	Locoregional	160	40.0	26.0	15.2		Without and distant	<0.001
	Distant	122	30.5	26.0	14.3		Locoregional and distant	0.992
		Functional Scale EORTC QLQ-BR23
	Without	118	29.5	23.5	18.1	<0.001	Without and locoregional	<0.001
	Locoregional	160	40.0	64.0	17.0		Without and distant	<0.001
	Distant	122	30.5	58.1	19.2		Locoregional and distant	0.018

Variable	N	%	Mean	Standard deviation	Minimum	Maximum	p-value^* * Analysis of variance (ANOVA).
Pain			KPS
Without metastasis
No	51	43.0	93.9	7.5	70.0	100.0	0.001
Yes	67	57.0	87.9	10.7	50.0	100.0	0.001
Locoregional metastases
No	45	28.0	90.0	8.8	60.0	100.0	0.065
Yes	115	72.0	87.0	8.7	60.0	100.0	0.065
Distant metastases
No	17	14.0	85.0	11.2	50.0	100.0	0.001
Yes	105	87.0	74.0	12.0	40.0	90.0	0.001
Total
No	113	28.3	90.8	9.2	50.0	100.0	0.001
Yes	287	71.7	82.2	12.3	40.0	100.0	0.001

Breast cancer survivors	EORTC	KPS
Breast cancer survivors	EORTC	Correlation	Type	p-value^* ***** Spearman test.
Without metastasis	Functional Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	0.57	Accented	<0.001
	Symptom Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	-0.54	Accented	<0.001
	Global Health Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	0.52	Accented	<0.001
	Functional Scale^ EORTC QLQ-BR23.	-0.43	Appreciable	<0.001
	Symptom Scale^ EORTC QLQ-BR23.	-0.28	Low	0.002
Locoregional metastases	Functional Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	0.57	Accented	<0.001
	Symptom Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	0.53	Accented	<0.001
	Global Health Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	0.51	Accented	<0.001
	Functional Scale^ EORTC QLQ-BR23.	-0.22	Low	0.005
	Symptom Scale^ EORTC QLQ-BR23.	-0.30	Appreciable	<0.001
Distant metastases	Functional Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	0.70	Accented	<0.001
	Symptom Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	-0.63	Accented	<0.001
	Global Health Scale^* * EORTC QLQ-C30.	0.70	Accented	<0.001
	Functional Scale^ EORTC QLQ-BR23.	0.17	Low	0.070
	Symptom Scale^ EORTC QLQ-BR23.	0.41	Appreciable	<0.001

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[1] *Correspondence: Address: Rua Major Laurentino de Morais, 1.218/1.301, Natal, RN - Brazil, Postal code: 59020-390. anakatherine@ufrnet.br