Quality of life and influential factors in patients with esophagus cancer and precancerosis / 肿瘤

ABSTRACT

Objective: To investigate the situation and influential factors of quality of life (QoL) in patients with esophagus cancer and precancerosis, aimed at providing evidences for valid QoL promotion measures. Methods: QoLs of patients with esophagus cancer and precancerosis were measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Esophageal (FACT-E). The influences of social demography, clinical features and time point of treatment on QoL were analyzed. Results: The average score of standardized FACT-E was 70.82± 1.33. The general part was 71.58±1.40 and the specific part was 69.62±1.54. QoL was significantly influenced by clinical stage, type of therapy and time point of the treatment (all P < 0.05). QoL became worse with the progression of the clinical stage. Patients treated with radiotherapy had relatively better QoL than other types of therapy (P < 0.05). Compared with only surgery, a combination therapy of surgery and chemotherapy showed significantly higher QoL (P < 0.05). The worst QoL was observed at the time point when the primary treatment was completed (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Early diagnosis and treatment is regarded as an effective method to improve the QoL of patients with esophagus cancer and precancerosis. QoL is recommended to take into consideration during the therapy selection.