Quality of Life After “Total Mesorectal Excision (TME)” for Rectal Carcinoma: a Study from a Tertiary Care Hospital in Northern India

Quality of life (QoL) is a key element in rectal cancer (RC) patients. There is not much data regarding this from North India. This study assesses QoL following low anterior resection (LAR) and abdominoperineal resection (APR), operated for low rectal tumors at a high-volume center in northern India. One-hundred-thirty patients of rectal carcinoma were prospectively assessed for quality of life using the European Organization for Cancer QLQ-30 and CR29 questionnaires and compared with reference data population. There was no significant difference in the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 functional or symptom score between the study group and reference data population. Specific functional and symptom QoL scores of the study group were comparable to that of reference data population. There was no significant difference in the EORTC QLQ-C30 functional or symptom score between APR and LAR groups, except for the symptom of nausea and vomiting which was reported significantly more by the LAR group patients than APR group (p = 0.001). LAR patients had significantly higher scores with regard to nausea and vomiting than patients with an APR (p < 0.05). APR patients had significantly higher scores with regards to urinary frequency (p = 0.0001), abdominal pain (p = 0.0001), and embarrassment (p = 0.0001) than LAR patients. Quality of life after APR and LAR for rectal carcinoma was found to be comparable to the reference data population, and the QoL after APR was similar to that after LAR barring a few symptoms.