Quality of life in long-term survivors of early stage endometrial cancer

Abstract

Introduction. Endometrial cancer (EC) is the most common gynaecological malignancy in developed countries. Effective treatment of the early stage of the disease is achieved by surgery alone. An increasing number of patients with EC become long-term survivors; therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the quality-of-life (QOL) of EC survivors. Materials and Method. A total of 328 survivors who had completed cancer treatment more than 3 years ago, and had previously completed questionnaires concerning QOL -European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) and depression -Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II). Patients were grouped into those with surgery alone or surgery with adjuvant radiotherapy. Responses were compared with 284 healthy women who were seen for standard gynaecologic screening examinations. Results. According to the presented results, the QOL of women with EC after surgical treatment was equal to that of healthy women in the control group. Treatment with adjuvant radiotherapy influenced the QOL, with the exception of emotional functioning (p=0.028). No statistically significant differences were found in scores on the BDI-II between groups for the cognitive-affective factor, the somatic factor, or the total sum score.Conclusions. The quality of life in EC survivors approximates that of healthy controls after 3 years post-surgical treatment. Patients treated for early stage EC should be informed about the anticipated good prognosis and the low risk of psychosocial and physical long-term effects. Cancer survivors who are treated by surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy may be especially at risk for emotional functioning problems.

Long-term Cardiovascular Outcomes Among Endometrial Cancer Survivors in a Large, Population-Based Cohort Study

“…Many of the studies that have examined long-term outcomes among endometrial cancer survivors had small sample sizes, lacked a comparison group, or relied on patient-reported outcomes (4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13). Studies that examine risk for long-term cardiovascular outcomes among endometrial cancer survivors are becoming increasingly more critical because of the high overall survival rate among individuals diagnosed with endometrial cancer, the large number of endometrial cancer survivors, the projected increase in the number of endometrial cancer diagnoses (3), the introduction of more complex therapies, and the high mortality due to cardiovascular disease among endometrial cancer survivors.…”

Comparative Study in Quality of Life between Thai Endometrial Cancer Survivors and Healthy Women in Thammasat University Hospital

“…A previous Thai work by Prasongvej and colleague reported that cervical cancer survivors had better functional QoL than other women with similar characteristics (Prasongvej et al, 2017). However, reports from Poland, Germany and the Netherland yielded similar symptom scales when compared endometrial cancer survivors and those with no cancer (Dobrzycka et al, 2017;Becker et al, 2011;de Boer et al, 2015). Different types of cancer seem to impact patient symptom scales differently.…”

“…Literature from Poland, Germany, the Netherland, and Italy reported that there was no significant global health status QoL difference between endometrial cancer survivors and their control groups (Dobrzycka et al, 2017;Becker et al, 2011;de Boer et al, 2015;Ferrandine et al, 2014). Chinese and Turkish works reported lower global health status among gynecologic cancer survivors who received wider area of radiation treatment.…”

“…Our surgery with adjuvant therapy endometrial cancer survival group reported the lowest QoL in physical and social functioning domains by a significant margin. Dobrzycka et al, (2017) reported of Polish study stated that QoL in FEF domain of endometrial cancer survivors (surgery with adjuvant therapy) was worse than those who underwent surgery alone. Those who underwent surgery alone and the control group had similar FEF QoL.…”

“…Our endometrial cancer survivor population were mainly more than 56 years old and mostly were facing retirement which would greatly alter their finances to a reduced income. Most literature about endometrial cancer survivors and their quality of life came from the European countries (Dobrzycka et al, 2017;Becker et al, 2011;de Boer et al,2015;Ferrandine et al, 2014;Yavas et al, 2017). Thai studies were needed to understand our population in our socioeconomic and cultural context in order to properly support our patients.…”