Science & Healthcare

Background: At present, more and more researchers are paying attention to the fact that during the treatment of cancer patients it is necessary to assess the quality of their life. There are many new data on the evaluation of the quality of life in cancer multicenter studies, in which the quality of life is the main criterion for assessing the effectiveness of treatment. The study of the quality of life allows you to obtain additional information about many aspects of the patient's condition, both before and during the treatment.

The goal is to make a comparative assessment of quality of life indicators in the traditional and hypofractionated regimens of radiotherapy for breast cancer.

Materials and methods. The design of the study is a sociological survey, a clinical trial. Data from a questionnaire survey of 160 patients with stage II and III C breast cancer were treated in the Regional Cancer Clinic in Semey, divided into two groups receiving either hypofractionated or traditional radiation therapy. The survey was carried out using official versions of the EORTC QLQ-C30 / BR23 questionnaires (a questionnaire approved by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer in 2005). In the mathematical processing of survey results, the EORTC QLQ-C30 Scoring Manual for EORTC QLQ-C30 / BR23 was used. The reliability of the differences was assessed using the Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney method.

Results of the study. When considering differences in groups with traditional radiotherapy and hypofractionated radiotherapy in breast cancer patients, we found a statistically significant difference when comparing both the type of surgical intervention and the use of different regimens of radiation therapy, in scales - physical functioning, pain and symptoms of breast damage. Regarding the regimens of radiation therapy, since the frequency of radiation injuries with hypofractionated radiotherapy is lower than for traditional radiotherapy, this fact is reflected in the quality of life values (p = 0.43).

Conclusions. Patients who underwent radical mastectomy have a lower self-esteem compared to the group of patients with organ-preserving operations due to the non-acceptance of the body image (p = 0.05), which resulted in a decrease in sexual desire and sexual satisfaction.

The decline in quality of life due to pain compared to surgical treatment in groups is most likely due to the amount of intervention. At comparing this indicator in groups with organ-preserving and radical operative treatment, a statistically significant difference (p = 0.032) was established, and radical mastectomy leads to an increase in complaints of symptoms of tissue damage in hands 14.5 (20.9).

Regarding the regimes of radiation therapy, since the frequency of radiation damage in hypofractionated radiation therapy is lower than in traditional radiation therapy, this fact is reflected in the quality of life indicators (p = 0.43), in combination with organ-saving operations, the pain scale averaged 7.1 (16.4).

A comparative assessment of quality of life showed that the use of hypofractionated radiotherapy provides better quality of life.