Quality of life in patients of carcinoma cervix treated with chemoradiotherapy: A prospective study.

Abstract

e16545 Background: The standard of care in locally advanced carcinoma cervix is concurrent chemoradiotherapy. The aim of the study is to prospectively assess quality of life (QoL) in patients of carcinoma cervix treated with chemoradiotherapy. Methods: Between June 2011 and June 2012, 20 patients of carcinoma cervix were included in the study. All patients received conformal external beam radiotherapy (EBRT) on Linear accelerator to a total dose of 50Gy, 2 Gy per fraction, 25 fractions to the pelvis and intracavitary brachytherapy by High dose rate brachytherapy, 7 Gy per fraction, 3 fractions to a total dose of 21 Gy. Patients received concurrent chemotherapy with Cisplatin 40 mg/m2 weekly for five weeks. QoL was assessed using EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-C24 questionnaires at baseline and at six months following completion of treatment. The collected data was analyzed using standard statistical software package (SPSS version 20.0). Results: Median age of the patients in the study was 52years ( range 34 – 69 years), 13 (65%) patients were stage II and seven (35%) were stage III. Mean duration of treatment is 37 days (range 34- 70 days). Local control rate at six months was 95%. Compliance with completion of QoL scores was high. A statistically significant improvement (p = 0.001) was seen at six months post treatment in Global health score and in function scales like physical function, role function, emotional function, social function and cognitive function. There was a significant improvement in symptom scales of urologic and vaginal symptoms. The difference in sexual function at six months showed a trend towards significance (p = 0.052). Conclusions: Patients of carcinoma cervix have a significant improvement in quality of life following treatment with radiotherapy and chemotherapy.