Quality of life of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy

Aim
The aim of the study was to determine the quality of life in cancer patients treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy

Material and methods
The study included 100 adults with cancer treated with chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The diagnostic survey method was used. The study was conducted using the standardized EORTC QLQ-C30 v.s 3.0 questionnaire and the proprietary questionnaire that allowed for the collection of socio-demographic data. All statistical calculations were performed using the IBM SPSS Statistics 25 package and the Excel 2016 spreadsheet. They were used to analyze descriptive statistics with the Kolmogorov-Smirnow test, Kruskal-Wallis tests, Mann-Whitney U tests and Spearman's rank correlation analysis. . The classical threshold α = 0.05 was considered the level of significance.

Results
Of the 100 cancer patients, 94% had a genetic burden. The quality of life of the majority of patients was influenced by their sex, age, place of residence, education, professional situation, symptoms and treatment. A higher level of quality of life was observed among women, young people, city dwellers, people with higher education, students and those treated with radiotherapy. The mean quality of life score was 3.33.

Conclusions
Cancer patients experienced many symptoms related to both the disease and the treatment that affected their quality of life. There is a need to develop interventions for effective treatment that will enable patients to feel more in control of their disease and treatment, and to improve their quality of life.