Abstract
Introduction: Quality of life (QoL) is an essential endpoint of breast cancer treatment. Several studies assessed the QoL after mastectomy in different Arab countries. Saudi Arabia has a conservative society where females are faced with different social and psychological issues in addition to those faced by females worldwide. Objectives: To assess the QoL in Saudi patients with non-metastatic breast cancer treated with mastectomy without reconstruction at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh. Materials and methods: A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted using the Arabic version of the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer QoL Cancer-Specific Version (EORTC QLQ-C30, v.3.0) questionnaire and its breast cancer-specific module (BR 23). Possible candidates were identified through medical records. Patients were contacted and screened for eligibility then telephone interviews were performed by the authors. Results: A total of 64 patients completed the interview successfully. The majority of patients were >50 years old (62.5%), 71.88% were married, 53.13% were illiterate and 85.94% of patients were unemployed. Obesity accounted for 68.75% while menopause accounted for 84.38% of the sample population. Using the QLQ-C30 questionnaire, we found that the global health score was 79.82 (mean). Functional scales showed good functioning among study subjects. Social and cognitive functions scored the highest (81.77 and 80.21, respectively). Symptom scales showed that sleep disturbance (mean 35.42) was the most severe symptom. For the QLQ-BR23 questionnaire, sexual enjoyment in functional scales scored the lowest (mean 33.33) and body image (mean 73.96) scored the highest. On the symptom scales, patients upset from hair loss (mean 42.67) scored the highest, while the score for arm symptoms was 38.19 (mean). Multinomial logistic regression failed to identify any significant predictors for all the key outcomes. Conclusions: The QoL in Saudi women who underwent mastectomy for non-metastatic breast cancer is comparable with that in other Gulf countries. Acknowledgements: Dr Lolwah Al-Riyees for supervising this project.
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