Quality of life in endometrial cancer survivors

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the health-related quality of life in survivors of endometrial cancer (EC), and to identify common pr oblems that they may encounter, in the hope of paving the way to improving their quality of life. Study design: We investigated and compared the healt h conditions and quality of life between EC survivors and the general popul ation as a control group. There were 61 EC. patients who were at clinical s tage I-III and survived for 5-7 years after the primary treatments. The con trol group was composed of 527 healthy postmenopausal women. All of them co mpleted a self-evaluated questionnaire pertaining to personal conditions, m edical surveillance, individual well-being and quality of life. Results: Th e EC survivors were divided into two groups: an older group (n = 34) and a younger group (n = 27). The latter was compared with the controls. In gener al, most of the EC survivors were old, low-educated women. The majority of them were in a poor condition. They were inactive, received medical surveil lance and had regular medication. The distribution of various complications was higher in the older EC group while the climacteric symptoms were more common in the younger EC group. In both EC groups, the quality of life was lower than in the controls. The prevalence of somatic symptoms was higher i n the older EC survivors and psychological problems were a common complaint of the younger EC survivors. Conclusion : The quality of life was poor in the EC survivors. To improve their life quality, earlier psychological coun seling should be offered to EC survivors, in particular to younger and sing le women, and hormone replacement therapy (HRT) should be recommended, but on a selective basis, to those patients at low risk of cancer recurrence. ( C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.