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Assessment of quality of life in thyroid cancer patients using the EORTC thyroid-specific questionnaire: a prospective cross-sectional study

  • Head and Neck
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Abstract

Background

Many studies on the quality of life (QoL) among the thyroid cancer survivors have shown conflicting results. This may be since many of these studies have not used thyroid cancer-specific questionnaires.

Patients and methods

In our study we have translated the EORTC THY-34, validated and served it in a cross-sectional study to the assess the QoL among thyroid cancer patients free of disease during their routine follow-up. Patients were categorized based on the duration from treatment completion, ATA risk stratification, treatment received, number of RAI sessions and thyroid function status during analysis.

Results

Overall, 220 thyroid cancer survivors were included in this study. In general, in the EORTC QLQ–C30, the global QoL of thyroid cancer patients were good with a mean score of 72.99. The highest score was that for social functioning (89.55). In the EORTC–THY34 all the patients in the cohort had relatively lower scores (on symptom scales). Overall, there was no difference in the QLQ–C30 and THY-34 QoL with respect to any of the categorization mentioned above. However, our thyroid cancer patients QoL scores were better and/or comparable to those in published literature and they were also better or comparable to the QoL of the general population those were available in literature.

Conclusions

There was no difference in the QoL scores based on various categories. To better understand the quality of life of these patients a prospective longitudinal study with baseline values and values at regular intervals might give us a better insight.

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Data availability

The data can be made available on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

Dr. Atanu Bhattacharjee, Biostatistician, EORTC—Susanne Singer, Dagmara Kulis, Alena Niculae. Dr.Vidhubala, Chennai. Dr. Jayita Deodhar, Psycho-oncologist, TMH, Mumbai. The necessary permission from EORTC for the use of the questionnaires have been taken. (user agreement: https://qol.eortc.org/questionnaires) (Request ID: 78277).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Head and Neck, Department of Surgical Oncology, Tata Memorial Center, Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), Mumbai, India

    Shivakumar Thiagarajan

  2. Department of Head and Neck Surgical Oncology, Bombay Hospital, Mumbai, India

    Khuzema Fatehi

  3. BLK-Max Super Speciality Hospital, New Delhi, India

    Nandini Menon

  4. Tata Memorial Center, Mumbai, India

    Mahesh Sawant

  5. ACTREC, Tata Memorial Center, Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI), Navi Mumbai, India

    Ankita Pal

Authors
  1. Shivakumar Thiagarajan
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  2. Khuzema Fatehi
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  3. Nandini Menon
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  4. Mahesh Sawant
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  5. Ankita Pal
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shivakumar Thiagarajan.

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Ethical approval

The study was approved by our institution’s ethics committee. It was also registered with the clinical trials registry of India (CTRI) (CTRI/2018/02/012089).

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Thiagarajan, S., Fatehi, K., Menon, N. et al. Assessment of quality of life in thyroid cancer patients using the EORTC thyroid-specific questionnaire: a prospective cross-sectional study. Eur Arch Otorhinolaryngol 281, 1953–1960 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-024-08471-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00405-024-08471-w

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