Assessment of the impact of home palliative care on the quality of life, anxiety, and depression as well as performance status in cancer patients – case series

Introduction
The main aim of this study project is an assessment of the impact of home palliative care on the quality of life (QOL), anxiety, and depression as well as performance status in cancer patients.

Material and methods
We used the following questionnaires: European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire – Core 30 (EORTC QLQ C-30), the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS).

Results
We enrolled 21 cancer patients (adults) under home palliative care. In this study project we mainly compared the results of EORTC QLQ C-30, HADS, and KPS over time. Interestingly we found statistically significant differences between day 1 and day 21 of palliative care in the score of the EORTC QLQ C-30 and HADS scale. We noticed that the mean EORTC QLQ C-30 and HADS scores decreased at each time point at which we re-assessed QOL and anxiety as well as depression. We observed no statistically significant differences between the first and 21st day in terms of performance status.

Conclusions
Preliminary results indicate that the home palliative care can improve QOL and may also reduce the severity of anxiety and depression in cancer patients.