Assessment of long-term quality of life in patients with anal carcinomas treated by radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy

This study was conducted to assess long-term Quality of Life (QOL) in patie nts treated by radiotherapy with or without chemotherapy for anal carcinoma s. Patients with a maximum age of 80 years, and who were alive at least 3 y ears following completion of treatment with a functioning anal sphincter an d without active disease,were selected for this study. Of 52 such patients identified, 41 (79%) were evaluable. There were 35 females and six males wi th a median age of 71 years (55-80). The median follow-up interval was 116 months (range 37-218). QOL was-assessed using two self-rating questionnaire s developed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of canc er: one for cancer-specific QOL (EORTC QLQ-C30) and one for site-specific Q OL (EORTC QLQ-CR38). For the function scales a higher score represents a hi gher level of functioning (100 being the best score), whereas for the sympt om scales a higher score indicates a higher level of symptomatology/problem s (0 being the best score). For the QLQ-C30, the functional scale scores ra nged from 71 (global quality of life) to 85 (role function) and the symptom scale scares from 6 (nausea-vomiting) to 28 (diarrhoea). For the QLQ-CR38 module the functional scale scores ranged from 13 (sexual functioning) to 7 4 (body image) and for the symptom Scale scores from 5 (weight loss) to 66 (sexual dysfunction in males). None of the functional and symptom scale sco res seemed to be better in patients with longer followup. In patients treat ed with sphincter conservation for anal carcinomas, long-term QOL as measur ed by the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR38 appears to be acceptable, with the exc eption of diarrhoea and perhaps sexual function. Moreover, the subset of pa tients who presented with severe complications and/or anal dysfunction show ed poorer scores in most scales.