Quality of Life among Ovarian Cancer: A Cross-Sectional Approach

Introduction: Advances in ovarian cancer (OC) treatments during the former 40 years, have caused in the five- year survival rate enhancement. Although, the patients' survival increasing, patients with cancer experience different side effects that influence the quality of life (QoL). Hence, this study was to assess the quality of life between OC women by using validated questionnaires EORTC QLQ-C30, six months after their chemotherapy course termination. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was done on 137 histological confirmed ovarian cancer women, diagnosed and treated in Imam Khomeini hospital from September 2018 to September 2020. Results: The average age of OC patients was 51.9 +/- 14.4 year-old with a range of 16 to 87 year-old. Comparing EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaires mean scores according to chemotherapy types showed role (p-value=0.048), emotional (p-value=0.013), cognitive (p-value=0.005) and social (p-value=0.011) functioning were significantly better in BEP treatment group. Pain (p-value=0.002) and insomnia (pvalue=0.028) and QoL (p-value=0.001) scores were worse in Paclitaxel and Carboplatin treatment group. Surprisingly, Cognitive function in patients older than 60 year-old treated with BEP had the least score and in women younger than 40 year-old underwent BEP the least adverse effect was seen. In addition, Constipation was significantly (p-value=0.036) higher in patients with BEP chemotherapy regimens and older than 60 year-olds. Noticeably, the financial factor had a significant adverse association with the patients' global health status (r= -0.61, p-value<0.001). Also, higher social and emotional function significantly (p-value<0.001) associated with a higher score of QoL. Conclusion: It seems physicians should encourage prescribing proper conservative therapy besides chemotherapy agents to reduce their adverse effects on OC patients, also try to reduce the adverse effect of anxiety, depression, and financial stress because of cancer treatment, it consequently could promote the QoL of patients.