Health Related Quality of Life in Women with Breast Cancer Treated with Chemotherapy

Introduction & Aim: Health related quality of life measures can obtain valuable information on health status and treatment effects. This study was conducted to evaluate the quality of life of women with breast cancer during treatment with chemotherapy drugs. Methods: This is a descriptive study of 300 women patients with breast cancer who are treated with chemotherapy drugs in two teaching hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences who were selected by available sampling. A two-part questionnaire about demographic information and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) were used. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 21 and descriptive and inferential statistics. Results: The mean score of quality of life in functional scale was 57/5±15/4 and in symptom scale was 39/3±14/9. The score of global quality of life was 51/3±18/05. The stepwise multiple regression analysis results showed that There was statistically a significant relationship between the symptom scale of quality of life and disease stage and between the global quality of life scale and time since diagnosis of participants (p˂0/05). Conclusion: According to our findings the participants had many unmet needs especially in the physical dimension. Patients, who had more unmet needs, had lower global health and functional status of quality of life and more disease symptoms. The improvement of quality of life in women with breast cancer provides by establishment of supportive care programs to cover all aspects of patients care needs.