Quality of life among breast cancer patients in Pusat Perubatan Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (PPUKM)

As the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women, breast cancer is also the leading cause of cancer mortality in women worldwide. Although treatment for breast cancer often has a promising prognosis, in the short term, the diagnosis and aggressive treatment still have a major impact on patients' quality of life (QOL). Therefore, understanding of changes in QOL in the diagnosis-to-treatment stage and factors associated with it is critically important in helping patients to develop better QOL and to support better long-term coping with cancer. The objective of this study is to determine the quality of life among breast cancer patients in PPUKM based on socio-demographic and clinical characteristics. This study was designed as cross-sectional study. The data collected from 156 female breast cancer patients who were chosen for recruitment in Day Care Oncology and Medical 4 ward from August 2012 to January 2013.Questionnaires were distributed to the patients during their visit to the day care and ward. The questionnaires of this study consists of two parts: Socio-demographic and Patient Functional Assessment of Cancer. SPSS version 20 and Microsoft Excel 2007 were used to interpret the data. As for clinical characteristics of the study participants; majority of them had family history of breast cancer, have been diagnosed at least 1-2 years and were diagnosed at grade 3-4. The majority of them underwent radiotherapy, chemotherapy and tamoxifen therapy (30.8%, 50.6%, and 18.6% respectively).For multivariate analysis, years after diagnosis, family monthly income and radiotherapy were significantly associated with total QOL of the breast cancer patients. In conclusion, psychological factors, as well as a sense of self-efficacy for managing the cancer, are important factors for predicting changes in patients' quality of life.