Quality of Life in Patients with Gynecologic Cancer

The negative effects of gynecological cancers are multidimentinal. The aim of this study was to determine the quality of life in patients with gynecological cancers. Patients followed in gynecology clinic (n=77) and outpatient clinic (n=74) because of a gynecological cancer between April 15 and May 15, 2008 were included in this study. A questionare prepared by the researchers and EORTC QLQ-C30 scale validated in Turkish by Beser were applied to the participants. Mean (+/- SD) quality of life was determined as 51.54 +/- 22.20. Emotional (49.55 +/- 32.42) and social (55.18 +/- 32.49) aspects were mostly affected among the functional parameters. Others such as role (57.06 +/- 19.09), physical (59.91 +/- 22.87) and cognitive (66.33 +/- 27.45) functions were also negatively affected. Among the "symptom subgroup of quality of life scale", pain (49.06 +/- 31.55) and economic difficulties (51.87 +/- 33.34) were also determined to be negatively affected parameters. Especially emotional functions have been observed to decrease significantly in this cohort (p<0.05), which indicates the impaired quality of life in cancer patients. It has been noted that anxiety and depression increased during the follow up of patients that affects the quality of life negatively.