European Journal of Molecular & Clinical Medicine

Abstract

Background: The present study was undertaken for assessing the quality of life in patients with breast cancer before and after diagnosis.
Materials & methods: 200 patients were enrolled for the present study. A complete demographic and clinical detail of all the patients was obtained. At the baseline stage, interview was conducted among all the patients after obtaining their prior consent. This interview was conducted with the aim of gathering data in relation to quality of life. Afterwards, 100 patients that had confirmed histopathological diagnosis of breast cancer were separated and remaining all the patients was excluded. Follow-up of all the patients was done and re-interview of all the patients was again carried out. All the results were recorded and analysed using SPSS software.
Results: At the baseline period, initial treatment was mastectomy in 81 percent of the cases followed by conservative surgery in 9 percent of the patients. Quality of life score showed abrupt phases at different follow-up. Overall, global quality of life score showed improvement from score of 63.3 to 75.8 at 6 months follow-up followed by a significant decline to a value of 39.8.
Conclusion: Breast cancer patients should be followed up for their quality of life and provided effective therapy for their physical and psychological problems.