ESTRO 2024 - Abstract Book

S5657

RTT - Patient experience and quality of life

ESTRO 2024

(EBRT) treatment and to determine the prescience of correlations amongst patient variables including sociodemographic factors such as age, marital status, co-morbidities, or gender may influence quality of life scores. The study further determined which categories of patients are most at risk for developing poor quality of life after EBRT treatment.

Material/Methods:

A cross-sectional, prospective, non-experimental, quantitative study was conducted among a convenient sample of 24 patients undergoing external beam radiotherapy treatment in Malta. Ethical approval was granted by the local research and ethics committee in November 2022 (FHS_2022_00447). Participants were recruited from a local oncology hospital by intermediaries (radiographers). The participants were recruited in the study if they met the following inclusion criteria:

· Radical patients receiving EBRT to any site.

·

Over 18 years of age.

· Be able to comprehend English or Maltese to read and complete the information sheet and questionnaire.

Statistical analysis for the data collection from the study was obtained using the International Business Machines Corporation Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS) version 28. The EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire was utilized to establish and evaluate QoL scores 5 . The Spearman correlation coefficient was used to determine the influence of patient variables on QoL scores.

Results:

A total of 24 patients consented to participate in the study and completed the questionnaire. The majority of patients were prostate cancer patients (n=12), followed by breast cancer patients (n=5), the head and neck region (n=4) and lung cancer patients (n=3). The EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire is used to assess QoL in cancer patients. The global health status also referred to as the overall QoL score refers to the overall quality of life score of the patient. The global health status score can range from 0-100, with higher score values for this section denote the patient is experiencing a high quality of life. It was noted that males had higher overall QoL scores when compared to females with an average of 66.18 and 58.33 respectively. The findings revealed that approximately 12.5% of lung cancer patients (n=3) in the sample experienced poor QoL scores after completing EBRT. Lung patients reported a high level of symptomatology with an average symptom score of 65.81. Age was associated with a deterioration in all scales measuring comprehensive QoL, indicating that older patients reported more symptoms. A negative correlation (Rs=-.711, p=0.057) was identified between global health status and symptom scores, underscoring the need for continuous QoL assessment in EBRT patients. Results from the study revealed that patient marital status and co-morbidities were found to not influence the quality of life scores.

Conclusion:

These findings emphasize the importance of assessing QoL in patients after completing EBRT to develop targeted strategies for improving functioning and global health status. Active monitoring of QoL during EBRT is crucial for cancer patients in Malta, particularly among those with lung cancer. Future studies should include larger sample sizes using a longitudinal methodology particularly among lung cancer patients, to further investigate changes in quality of life over a period of time.