Assessment and comparison of quality of life and sexual function after adjuvant therapy in post-mastectomy breast carcinoma: A prospective study
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3126/ajms.v14i12.58636Keywords:
Breast cancer; Mastectomy; Adjuvant radiotherapy; Chemotherapy; Quality of lifeAbstract
Background: Quality of life (QoL) is an important measure in the evaluation of health, physical condition, and the effects of treatment and continues to gain importance. Health-related QoL gives information about the patient’s experiences (physical and psychological) related to the disease and the applied treatments, as well as the potential prognosis. It is known that breast surgery and its combination with chemotherapy (CT) and radiation therapy causes negative changes in the patient’s psychosocial well-being and QoL.
Aims and Objectives: To study the QoL and sexual function in female breast carcinoma patients who received adjuvant CT and radiation therapy after mastectomy.
Materials and Methods: This was a single institutional prospective study carried out in the Department of Radiotherapy, RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata. From January 2017 to December 2019, according to inclusion and exclusion criteria, a total of 64 histologically proven breast carcinoma patients were included in this prospective study.
Results: On symptom scale analysis, it has been noted that all the symptoms increased after receiving CT and reached their highest after the 6th cycle of CT, then improved after radiation and further improved at 6 months follow-up, except for the breast symptoms, which decreased after the 6th cycle of CT, increased immediately post-RT, and then again decreased at 6 months follow-up.
Conclusion: Treatment with CT and radiation therapy significantly affects QoL, psychosexual function, and physical problems.
Downloads
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Asian Journal of Medical Sciences
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- The journal holds copyright and publishes the work under a Creative Commons CC-BY-NC license that permits use, distribution and reprduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited and is not used for commercial purposes. The journal should be recognised as the original publisher of this work.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).