Blasko D, Schweizer C, Fitz T, Schröter C, Sörgel C, Kallies A, Fietkau R, Distel L (2023)
Publication Type: Journal article
Publication year: 2023
Book Volume: 11
Article Number: 1981
Journal Issue: 14
DOI: 10.3390/healthcare11141981
Colorectal cancer remains one of the most commonly diagnosed cancers. Advanced rectal cancer patients receive neoadjuvant radiochemotherapy as well as surgery and suffer from reduced health-related quality of life due to various side effects. We were interested in the role of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it affected those patients’ quality of life. A total of 489 advanced rectal cancer patients from the University Hospital Erlangen in Germany were surveyed between May 2010 and March 2022 and asked to fill out the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR38 questionnaires over eight different time points: at the beginning, during and after radiochemotherapy, right before surgery, and in yearly intervals after surgery for up to four years. Answers were converted to scores to compare the COVID-19 period to the time before March 2020, focusing on the follow-ups, the developments over time—including by sex and age—and the influence of the TNM cT-stage. Overall, a trend of impaired functional and symptom scores was found across all surveys with few significances (body image −10.6 percentage points (pp) after one year; defecation problems +13.5 pp, insomnia +10.2 pp and weight loss +9.8 pp after three years; defecation problems +11.3 pp after four years). cT4-stage patients lost significantly more weight than their cT1-3-stage counterparts (+10.7 to 13.7 pp). Further studies should be conducted to find possible causes and develop countermeasures for future major infectious diseases.
APA:
Blasko, D., Schweizer, C., Fitz, T., Schröter, C., Sörgel, C., Kallies, A.,... Distel, L. (2023). Impact of COVID-19 on Quality of Life in Long-Term Advanced Rectal Cancer Survivors. Healthcare, 11(14). https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11141981
MLA:
Blasko, Daniel, et al. "Impact of COVID-19 on Quality of Life in Long-Term Advanced Rectal Cancer Survivors." Healthcare 11.14 (2023).
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