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Factors affecting health-related quality of life in women with recurrent breast cancer in Korea

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose was to determine the effects of recurrent breast cancer on health-related quality of life (HRQOL).

Methods

We administered the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23, McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire (MQOL), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), and Brief Fatigue Inventory (BFI) to 152 women experiencing recurrence 1 year after being diagnosed with stage I to III breast cancer. We classified recurrent women as post-, ongoing-, and non-treatment group and performed multivariate-adjusted analyses in HRQOL comparisons with data available from disease-free survivors and general population.

Results

Groups not completing treatment were more symptomatic and had poorer functioning in HRQOL than the post-treatment group. Compared to the general population, the post-treatment group showed worse scores concerning role, cognitive, and social functioning, fatigue, and financial difficulties. The post-treatment group showed identical scores to disease-free survivors in most HRQOL domains; however, they reported less fatigue and depression than the disease-free group. Higher overall QOL was related to absence of comorbidity, completing treatment, being involved in decision making, no problems before surgery, and good overall medical care.

Conclusion

Treatment completed, most degraded aspects of HRQOL in recurrent breast cancer women can return to levels observed in disease-free survivors.

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Acknowledgment

This work was supported by National Cancer Center Grant 04101502.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Young Ho Yun

    Present address: Quality of Cancer Care Branch, Research Institute for National Cancer Control and Evaluation, National Cancer Center, 809 Madu-dong, Ilsan-gu, , Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 411-769, Korea

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Quality of Cancer Care Branch, Research Institute for National Cancer Control and Evaluation, National Cancer Center, 809 Madu-dong, Ilsan-gu, , Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, 411-769, Korea

    Myung Kyung Lee

  2. Department of Surgery, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea

    Byung Ho Son

  3. Department of Social Welfare, Duksung Women’s University College of Social Science, Seoul, Korea

    Sook Yeon Hwang

  4. Department of Surgery, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea

    Wonshik Han

  5. Department of Surgery, Samsung Medical Center, Sungkyunkwan University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

    Jung-Hyun Yang

  6. Center for Breast Cancer, National Cancer Center, Goyang, Gyeonggi, Korea

    Seeyoun Lee

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  1. Myung Kyung Lee
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Correspondence to Young Ho Yun.

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Lee, M.K., Son, B.H., Hwang, S.Y. et al. Factors affecting health-related quality of life in women with recurrent breast cancer in Korea. Qual Life Res 16, 559–569 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-006-9144-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11136-006-9144-6

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