EVALUATING THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN PATIENTS WITH BRAIN METASTASES FROM LUNG CANCER UNDERGOING WHOLE-BRAIN RADIOTHERAPY AT NGHE AN ONCOLOGY HOSPITAL
Main Article Content
Abstract
Objectives: To evaluate the quality of life (QoL) and identify related factors in patients with brain metastases from lung cancer undergoing whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) at the General Radiotherapy Department, Nghe An Oncology Hospital.
Methods: A prospective, pre-post interventional study was conducted. Out of the initial eligible cohort, 32 lung cancer patients with brain metastases survived and completed 10 sessions of WBRTalong with a 1-month post-treatment follow-up. QoL was assessed at baseline and 1 month post-WBRT using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire and the brain cancer-specific module EORTC QLQ-BN20. To address multi-testing issues across various QoL dimensions, individual p-values were interpreted strictly as exploratory analyses
Results: The analyzed population consisted of 87.5% males and 12.5% females, with 74.9% of patients aged 50–69 years. One month after WBRT, exploratory analyses demonstrated a positive trend in QoL scores among the survivors. The global QoL score increased from 22.8 to 43.6 (p < 0.001). Brain tumor-related symptoms also decreased: headache fell from 59.3% to 37.5%, nausea
from 6.25% to 3.1%, seizures from 9.3% to 3.1%, paralysis from 21.8% to 18.7%, and severe pain from 9.6% to 3.9%.
Conclusions: In the short term, whole-brain radiotherapy combine with supportive care serves as an effective palliative approach, improving quality of life and alleviating focal neurological symptoms in this highly selected cohort of surviving patients.
Article Details
Keywords
Lung cancer, brain metastases, whole-brain radiotherapy, quality of life, EORTC QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-BN20.
References
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