gms | German Medical Science

MAINZ//2011: 56. GMDS-Jahrestagung und 6. DGEpi-Jahrestagung

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie e. V.
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Epidemiologie e. V.

26. - 29.09.2011 in Mainz

Article

Send article

Health-related quality of life 10 years after breast cancer – a 10-year prospective population-based study

Meeting Abstract

Search Medline for

  • Lena Koch - German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, Heidelberg
  • Lina Jansen - German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, Heidelberg
  • Antje Herrmann - German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, Heidelberg
  • Christa Stegmaier - Epidemiologic Cancer Registry Saarland, Saarbruecken
  • Susanne Singer - Universtity of Leipzig, Department of Medical Psychology and Medical Sociology, Leipzig
  • Hermann Brenner - German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, Heidelberg
  • Volker Arndt - German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), Division of Clinical Epidemiology and Aging Research, Heidelberg

Mainz//2011. 56. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Medizinische Informatik, Biometrie und Epidemiologie (gmds), 6. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Epidemiologie (DGEpi). Mainz, 26.-29.09.2011. Düsseldorf: German Medical Science GMS Publishing House; 2011. Doc11gmds191

doi: 10.3205/11gmds191, urn:nbn:de:0183-11gmds1913

Published: September 20, 2011

© 2011 Koch et al.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/deed.en). You are free: to Share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work, provided the original author and source are credited.

Outline

Text

Background: Breast cancer survivors experience adverse effects of cancer and/or treatment years after completion of therapy, which can considerably decrease quality of life (QoL). Due to the small number of longitudinal studies, with follow-up times mostly below or up to five years, knowledge on the time course of QoL is very limited. Given the increasing number of long-term survivors, we explored in detail the time course of QoL over a 10-year period in breast cancer survivors.

Methods: Health-related QoL was assessed 1, 3, 5, and 10 years after diagnosis in a population-based cohort of 370 breast cancer patients from Saarland (Germany), using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire and the tumor specific module QLQ-BR23. The time course of QoL over a 10-year period post-diagnosis was compared to controls from the general population of Germany, controlling for age.

Results: 182 patients (81% of all patients alive) responded in the 10-year, 160 patients (71%) participated in all follow-ups. Ten years post-diagnosis, all QoL dimensions, except global QoL, were worse in survivors than controls. Over the entire time span of 10 years post-diagnosis, survivors reported more restrictions in role, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning and had higher scores for fatigue, dyspnea, insomnia, constipation, diarrhea, and financial difficulties. For emotional, cognitive and social functioning, nausea/vomiting, pain, dyspnea, constipation, diarrhea and financial difficulties, differences strengthened from 5 to 10 years. Generally, restrictions were largest for the youngest survivors (age at diagnosis < 50 years).

Conclusion: Even 10 years after diagnosis, breast cancer survivors reported clinically meaningful restrictions in QoL. Some differences between survivors and controls even strengthened from 5 to 10 years. As compared to older patients, restrictions in QoL were largest for the youngest age group.