QUALITY-OF-LIFE OF CANCER-PATIENTS WITH DIFFERENT PROGNOSES

This study examines differences and similarities in the quality of lif e of 253 cancer patients with good, medium and poor prognoses. Our mai n hypothesis was that patients with a good prognosis will experience a higher quality of life than patients with a medium or poor prognosis. A multivariate analysis of covariance of eight quality of life scales was performed with prognosis as a factor and with age, sex, and the d uration of the illness as covariates. Significant main effects of prog nosis were found for the general QOL-scale and for physical aspects of quality of life. There were, however, only marginal and non-significa nt effects of prognosis groups on social and psychological functioning . A final multivariate analysis confirms earlier findings that perform ance status shows a weak but significant relationship with the psychol ogical functioning. Thus, the physical condition of the patient at the time of measurement seems to have some influence on the psychological functioning, whereas the severity of the disease as indicated by the classification into prognosis groups does not. These results question the general attitude that seriously ill cancer patients have reduced s ocial and psychological well-being. An alternative interpretation is t hat the scales used to measure psychological aspects of quality of lif e are inadequately sensitive.