A comparative analysis of quality of life of women diagnosed with breast and ovarian cancer
Abstract Background A comparative analysis of changes in quality of life of women diagnosed with ovarian and breast cancer after surgical treatment followed by adjuvant cancer therapy. Methods The study covered 220 women diagnosed with ovarian (n = 89) or breast cancer (n = 131) after surgical treatment followed by adjuvant cancer therapy (chemotherapy, radiotherapy, hormone therapy). The tools used to measure the quality of life were: standardised EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire and QLQ-BR23 module for breast cancer and QLQ-OV28 module for ovarian cancer. Results The women with breast cancer rated their health higher than the women with ovarian cancer. The health assessment made by the patients was not related to the type of cancer (P > 0.05). They experienced pain, dyspnea and weakness regardless of the location of cancer. In addition, the health of the women had a significant impact on their family and social life, but nonetheless, no statistically significant differences were found between the two groups (P > 0.05). Whilst the patients with breast cancer rated their quality of life and health higher than the patients with ovarian cancer, the differences were not statistically significant (P > 0.05). Conclusions The results show that there is an urgent need to provide cancer patients with support of psycho-oncologists, medical staff, community (including organisations that help women with a specific type of cancer) and family members at each stage of the disease and therapy to improve the health and quality of life of the population.