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Published in: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment 2/2008

01-05-2008 | Epidemiology

Health-related quality of life before and after a breast cancer diagnosis

Authors: Amy Trentham-Dietz, Brian L. Sprague, Ronald Klein, Barbara E. K. Klein, Karen J. Cruickshanks, Dennis G. Fryback, John M. Hampton

Published in: Breast Cancer Research and Treatment | Issue 2/2008

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Abstract

While many reports describe health-related quality of life (QOL) among breast cancer survivors, few compare QOL before and after diagnosis and whether changes in QOL substantially differ from changes experienced by all women during aging. QOL was examined in a cohort of female residents of Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, aged 43–86 years at the time of a 1988–1990 baseline examination (N = 2,762; 83% of eligible). Participants were re-contacted four times through 2002 to ascertain QOL using the 36-item Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). QOL data for 114 incident breast cancer cases identified by data linkage with the statewide cancer registry were compared with data for 2,527 women without breast cancer. Women with breast cancer averaged 4.5 (95% CI: 1.6, 7.3) points lower than control women on the SF-36 Physical Component Summary (PCS) scale, regardless of time since diagnosis (up to 13 years). Women with breast cancer also reported lower scores on the SF-36 Mental Component Summary (MCS) scale within two years after diagnosis, but not at more distant times. In longitudinal analyses, 26 women who completed the SF-36 before and after breast cancer diagnosis experienced larger declines than age-matched controls in seven of the eight SF-36 health domains (all but role-emotional) and reported relative declines of −7.0 (95% CI: −11.5, −2.6) and −2.9 (95% CI: −6.3, 0.6) on the PCS and MCS scales, respectively. These results suggest that breast cancer survivors experience relative declines in health-related QOL across a broad spectrum of domains, even many years after diagnosis.
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Metadata
Title
Health-related quality of life before and after a breast cancer diagnosis
Authors
Amy Trentham-Dietz
Brian L. Sprague
Ronald Klein
Barbara E. K. Klein
Karen J. Cruickshanks
Dennis G. Fryback
John M. Hampton
Publication date
01-05-2008
Publisher
Springer US
Published in
Breast Cancer Research and Treatment / Issue 2/2008
Print ISSN: 0167-6806
Electronic ISSN: 1573-7217
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10549-007-9653-1

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