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. 2019 Feb 24;7(1):26.
doi: 10.3390/diseases7010026.

Factors Influencing Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients Six Months after the Completion of Chemotherapy

Maria Lavdaniti  1 , Dimitra Anna Owens  2 , Polixeni Liamopoulou  3 , Kalliopi Marmara  4 , Efrosini Zioga  5 , Michael S Mantzanas  6 , Eftychia Evangelidou  7 , Eugenia Vlachou  8
Affiliations

Factors Influencing Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Patients Six Months after the Completion of Chemotherapy

Maria Lavdaniti et al. Diseases. .

Abstract

Purpose: To assess breast cancer patients' quality of life six months after the completion of adjuvant chemotherapy, and to investigate factors affecting this.

Methods: The study was conducted in one large hospital located in a major Greek city. A convenience sample of 61 breast cancer outpatients was recruited. A questionnaire, including the SF-36 scale and questions regarding demographic and clinical information, was used to collect data.

Results: The mean age of the patients was 51.52 ± 12.10. The effect of age on the physical role was significant (p = 0.003). Τhe effect of menopausal status on physical role was also found to be significant (p = 0.003); this might be explained by age. Regarding the treatment type, patients who received hormone therapy in addition to surgery and chemotherapy reported a significantly higher quality of life in terms of bodily pain (p = 0.04) and vitality (p = 0.04) than patients who underwent only surgery and chemotherapy.

Conclusions: Quality of life is affected by factors such as age, menopausal status, and previous therapy. Health care professionals should be more aware of the factors that influence the quality of life domains (physical role, bodily pain, vitality) within this group of cancer patients in order to meet their needs following acute treatment.

Keywords: breast cancer; chemotherapy; quality of life.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) Mean bodily pain scores according to treatment type across the surgery groups. Error bars show the standard error of the mean; (b) mean vitality scores according to treatment type across the surgery groups. Error bars show the standard error of the mean.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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