Quality of life in ovarian cancer patients receiving chemotherapy-preliminary study

Objective: Evaluate quality of life in ovarian cancer patients. Methods: To collect information, a diagnostic survey was carried out using the standardised survey questionnaires QLQ-C30 (quality of life questionnaire) and QLQ-OV28. The 105 women who were enrolled in the study had been diagnosed at the Diagnostic Imaging Centre and were undergoing treatment at the Chemotherapy Department of the Provincial Polyclinical Hospital in Torun. Results: The study group consisted of women aged 35-72 years. The average age of the women was 53.2 years. Most women had secondary education-46.7%, the fewest group had vocational education-13.3%. On a scale of 1-7, most of the women rated their health status from the previous week at 4 points-31.4%, at 5 points-27.6%, and at 3 points-22.9%. Similar results were found for quality of life: 4 points-32.4%, 5 points-25.7%, and 3 points-21.9%. The women aged 45 years and younger gave the highest rating to all the sub-scales, apart from hormonal symptoms (80.45 s +/- 12.96) and body image (61.60 s +/- 28.63), which received the highest rating from the women aged >62 years. Conclusion: The quality of life in ovarian cancer patients is related to their age, education and marital status. There is a correlation between the quality of life of the respondents and their family history of ovarian and/or breast cancer.