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. 2023 Mar 15;15(6):1770.
doi: 10.3390/cancers15061770.

Young Adult German Breast Cancer Patients Participating in a Three-Week Inpatient Mother-Child Rehab Program Have High Needs for Supportive Care

Friederike Hammersen  1 , Dorothea Fischer  2 , Telja Pursche  3 , Angelika M Strobel  4 , Alexander Katalinic  1   5 , Louisa Labohm  1 , Annika Waldmann  1
Affiliations

Young Adult German Breast Cancer Patients Participating in a Three-Week Inpatient Mother-Child Rehab Program Have High Needs for Supportive Care

Friederike Hammersen et al. Cancers (Basel). .

Abstract

A known cut-off problem hampers the interpretation of quality of life (QOL) scores. The purpose of this study was to apply a novel approach for the EORTC QLQ-C30 instrument to identify the proportion of breast cancer (BC) patients in need of supportive care. Changes in QOL during the COVID-19 pandemic were evaluated, as well as changes over time (after treatment termination and up to 4 years later). Data were obtained from a cohort study on young adult BC patients with minor children participating in a mother-child rehab program. Cross-sectional QOL data were collected from 2015 to 2021 (baseline). Follow-up data were available for up to 4 years after diagnosis for a subgroup. The baseline cohort included 853 women (mean age 35 years). More than 50% had a need for supportive care. In the subgroup with follow-up, this proportion remained at a high level up to several years after diagnosis. During the COVID-19 pandemic, changes regarding the proportion with this need were not as high as expected-with the exception of changes on the QLQ-C30 scale 'role functioning' (+15%). Even several years after diagnosis, every second BC patient with minor children had a need for supportive care, which is much higher than previously found. Healthcare staff should be aware of this potential need and should address this issue.

Keywords: EORTC QLQ-C30; breast neoplasms; follow-up; minor children; need for supportive care; oncology; parental cancer; quality of life; rehabilitation; young adults.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Flowchart of study sample for baseline survey and follow-up.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Proportions (and 95% confidence intervals) of young adult non-metastatic breast cancer patients with minor children participating in a 3-week inpatient mother–child rehab program with EORTC QLQ-C30 scores indicating a need for supportive care according to thresholds proposed by Lidington et al. [22] over time.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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