The quality of life of early breast cancer patients treated by two different radiotherapy regimens.

A cohort of 63 patients participating in a prospectively randomized trial evaluating two different radiotherapy regimens and adjuvant tamoxifen in the conservative management of early breast cancer were monitored by a series of psychological measures. The aim was to determine whether there was any difference between the radiotherapy schedules in terms of their impact on the patient's quality of life and whether measures of coping style and trait anxiety could be used to predict the subjective response to treatment. Overall, radiotherapy had little effect on quality of life and the differences between the two regimens were minor with significantly more of those women on the longer treatment schedule experiencing a transient weight change, disruption of private life and loss of positivity compared with those on the shorter schedule. In anticipating psychological adjustment to treatment, coping style proved unhelpful but trait anxiety was found to be a robust indicator of response, suggesting that it may be possible to determine in advance those patients who are likely to exhibit psychological distress during radiotherapy.