Psychosocial well-Being of Patients with Inoperable Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: The importance of treatment- and disease-related factors

Abstract

Patients with inoperable non-small cell lung cancer, limited disease, were randomized to either chemotherapy (cisplatin and etoposide) or radiotherapy of the thorax. A set of questionnaires, covering 4 areas: psychosocial well-being, medical side effects, physical function, and everyday activity was filled out by 101 patients. The correlations between psychosocial well-being (dependent variable) on the one hand, and medical side effects, physical function, and everyday activity (independent variables) on the other were subjected to multiple regression analysis. No significant correlation was found between psychosocial well-being and chemotherapy-or radiotherapy-related subjective side effects. The disease-related symptoms correlated highly with psychosocial well-being during the observation period. Psychosocial well-being and the independent variables tended to be more strongly correlated during the follow-up period (14-52 weeks) than during the treatment period.

Psychosocial aspects of lung cancer

“…As the follow-up period varied from 8 weeks [23] to 1 year [14,16,17,21,24], the information on the short-and long-term psychosocial effects of a lung cancer diagnosis was somewhat heterogeneous. Furthermore, depression and anxiety might be the first symptoms of lung cancer, thereby introducing some misclassification.…”

“…In a study in Norway by Kaasa and Mastekaasa [14], 101 patients with inoperable non-small-cell lung cancer were randomized to chemotherapy or radiotherapy. Baseline measurements were taken after the diagnosis but before initial treatment, and follow-up data were collected seven times during the first year after treatment.…”

Psychometric Validation of the Eortc Core Quality of Life Questionnaire, 30-Item Version and A Diagnosis-Specific Module for Head and Neck Cancer Patients

“…A similar approach may be used in clinical oncology by measuring subjective well-being as a separate dimension ( Figure). In such analyses, disease-and treatment-rela,$ed symptoms, physical function, social function, psychological distress, and sociodemographic factors may be treated as independent variables of QOL ( 15).…”

Quality of Life

“…This difference disappeared at followup 6 weeks to 52 weeks later. The disease-related symptoms correlated well with psychosocial well being (37)(38)(39)(40).…”