Health-related quality of life in cancer patients between baseline and a three-year follow-up.

Purpose: The aim of the study was to identify health-related quality of life (QOL) in persons diagnosed with cancer and to determine differences between the QOL over a 3-year period.

Methods: We investigated the QOL in cancer patients at baseline and 3 years later using the EORTC QLQ-C30 (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire-Core 30) and the ECOG (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) Performance Status. Initially 216 participants (85 women, 131 men) were enrolled, and at the 3-year follow-up there were 126 (52 women, 74 men).

Results: Scores on the function and symptom scales changed significantly between the baseline and the 3-year follow-up. Physical, role, and social functions improved, whereas problems with constipation worsened. The global QOL of the participants at the 3-year follow-up was lower than that of baseline, but it was not statistically significant. The QOL in cancer patients improved from the baseline to the 3-year follow-up.

Conclusion: The results could serve as a guideline for nurses interpreting the perspective of QOL in their own groups of patients, and improve the understanding of the significance of mean QOL scores and develop nursing interventions in the future.