Long-term impact of lung cancer treatment on quality of life

<bold>Background:</bold> Patients undergoing different treatments for non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) often experience significant deteriorations in health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, the long-term impact of such treatments on HRQoL remains underexplored. <bold>Aim:</bold> To examine one year changes in HRQoL in patients with surgically and non-surgically treated NSCLC. <bold>Methods:</bold> HRQoL was assessed pre-treatment (PRE), at three months (3M), and one year (1Y) after treatment initiation using a 1) cancer-specific HRQoL measure (EORTC-QLQ-C30, including global health (GH), physical function (FS), and symptoms (SS) subdomains), 2) lung cancer-specific symptom measure (EORTC-QLQ-LC13), and 3) general HRQoL measure (EQ-5D). Long-term changes (PRE-1Y) were analyzed using a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test. <bold>Results:</bold> 56 patients were included, with 39 patients undergoing surgery (62% male; age 66±8yrs) and 17 receiving non-surgical treatment (82% male; age 65±9yrs). In the surgical group, GH (p <. 001) and FS (p = .003) declined at one year. Symptoms measured by EORTC-QLQ-LC13 increased at one year (p = .002). No changes were observed for SS and EQ-5D. In the non-surgical group, FS (p = .007) declined at one year. No changes in GH, SS, EORTC-QLQ-LC13 and EQ-5D were found (Figure 1). <bold>Conclusion:</bold> Treatment of lung cancer had a negative effect on HRQoL subscales general health and physical function, and on lung cancer-specific symptoms one year after treatment initiation. <fig><object-id>erj;66/suppl_69/PA5963/F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><object-id>F1</object-id><graphic></graphic></fig>