Assessment of Quality of Life in Patients with Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma

Abstract

Background Pleural mesothelioma represents 92% of all malignant mesotheliomas. There is no MPM curative treatment. Multimodality treatment is commonly used including chemotherapy, targeted therapy and radiotherapy. Because of MPM poor prognosis (OS 8-14 months), maintaining quality of life of patients became more important in MPM treatment. Aim of the Work To investigate the quality of life (QOL) of patients with malignant pleural mesothelioma and to determine the factors that correlate with their QOL comparing different therapies. Patients and Methods This is a prospective, observational multi-center study conducted between November 2018 and November 2019. 55 consecutive patients with newly diagnosed MPM were enrolled in Ain Shams University Hospital, El-Nasr Hospital in Helwan and Ismailia Oncology Hospital. The study was approved by the ethical committee at the faculty of medicine, Ain Shams University. Results In our study we evaluated quality of life of MPM patients using EORTC questionnaires (QLQ-C30 & QLQ-LC-13), and correlated the score with different chemotherapy types and other factors. Conclusion Our study found correlation between QLQ baseline scores and both weight loss & chest pain, and no correlation of QLQ scores change with types of chemotherapy. Median Progression-free survival was 6.5 months and correlated with disease stage and chemotherapy used.