EVALUATION BY MULTIDIMENSIONAL INSTRUMENTS OF HEALTH-RELATED QUALITY-OF-LIFE OF ELDERLY CANCER-PATIENTS UNDERGOING 3 DIFFERENT PSYCHOSOCIALTREATMENT APPROACHES - A RANDOMIZED CLINICAL-TRIAL

Our study belongs to the clinical trials in which the health-related q uality of life (HQL) evaluation constitutes the primary endpoint. It w as carried out with the aim of comparing the impact of three different types of psychological intervention, namely a psychopharmacological t reatment alone, the same treatment plus social support carried out by volunteers (SSV) and a third treatment modality including ''structured psychotherapy'' (autogenous training), on improving the HQL of elderl y cancer patients undergoing antineoplastic therapy with symptoms of a nxiety and/or depression related to their disease. The eight questionn aires used for HQL evaluation were generally self-rated and multidimen sional but unidimensional models were also employed. Seventy-four pati ents aged over 65 years with either solid tumors in different sites or hematological malignancies, generally in advanced stages (III-IV), we re enrolled in the study, Of these patients, 72 (42 men and 30 women, mean age 70.68 years, range 66-85) were evaluable. Our study highlight ed the usefulness of the pharmacological therapy (alprazolam + sulpiri de) and of other specific ancillary treatments in reducing the inciden ce of the main HQL-related side-effects of antineoplastic therapy and the superiority of an ''integrated'' strategy based both on psychophar macology and psychosocial interventions, such as SSV with or without s tructured psychotherapy. The one-way analysis of variance carried out by us did not allow us to draw definitive conclusions about which of t he two integrated treatments was to be considered the treatment of cho ice, as they proved to be almost equally effective.