Patient-reported quality of life and breast specific symptoms among long term survivors of breast cancer in India: A cross-sectional analysis using EORTC QLQ C30 and QLQ BR42.

Abstract

e12743 Background: Understanding how cancer therapies affect day to day living requires listening to patients, not just measuring tumour response. The EORTC QLQ-C30 provides a global view of quality of life and functioning, while the breast specific BR42 module captures body image, sexual well-being and treatment-related symptoms. There are few data from Indian patients receiving modern treatments. Methods: We analysed questionnaires from 110 long term breast cancer survivors treated at a tertiary centre in New Delhi,India. Each completed the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR42. Raw scale scores were calculated as the mean of constituent items, then linearly transformed to a 0–100 scale; functional scales were inverted so that higher scores denote better functioning, and symptom scales were not . Scores were only computed when at least half the items in a domain were answered. Results: Participants reported reasonably good overall quality of life: mean (±SD) global health score was 73.6 ± 25.8. Physical, role and emotional functioning were also relatively high (78.4 ± 20.4, 89.1 ± 17.4 and 75.2 ± 26.2, respectively), and body-image and sexual-functioning scores were well above two thirds of the maximum (85.1 ± 17.7 and 86.6 ± 18.0). Fatigue was the only core C30 symptom with a low mean (27.4 ± 22.8). In contrast, several BR42 symptom domains showed substantial burden: endocrine-therapy side effects averaged 77.6 ± 18.7, arm-related symptoms 75.9 ± 20.0 and endocrine-sexual side effects 90.3 ± 16.2 (scores > 66.7 indicate clinically significant problems ). Endocrine-sexual side effects showed a modest negative correlation with global health (r = –0.34), whereas body-image scores were positively associated with overall quality of life (r = 0.39). Associations between endocrine-therapy side effects and physical functioning were small (r = –0.18). Conclusions: In this cohort, global quality of life and functional domains were largely preserved despite cancer treatment, and women generally felt satisfied with their bodies and sexual relationships. However, endocrine therapy toxicity and arm symptoms were strikingly high and were linked to lower overall well being. Routine assessment of these patient reported outcomes can help clinicians anticipate problems and tailor supportive care. Further studies that include treatment details and larger samples are needed to confirm these findings and identify modifiable predictors.