流病所與預醫所聯合演講

流病所與預醫所聯合演講會3月18日星期二12:30-13:30於基醫大樓1536講堂邀請季瑋珠教授(預防醫學研究所)主講：The change of quality of life for cancer patients across different phases of treatment。

摘要：Background: Cancer is the first leading cause of death in Taiwan.　We have translated and validated the EORTC (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer) QLQ-C30, QLQ-HN35, QLQ-LC13, and QLQ-BR23 as cancer-specific quality of life (QoL) instruments. In this study, we used these instruments to describe and examine the change of QoL across different phases of treatment for patients with breast cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC).

Methods: Patients with breast cancer and nasopharyngeal carcinoma introduced by collaborative physicians were recruited consecutively from the phase of diagnosis (baseline).　The EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23 were given to patients with breast cancer, and the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-HN35 were give to patients with NPC after written informed consents.　The same questionnaires were given to each patient at different phases of treatment.　Major phases included baseline (first contact, at the time of diagnosis), chemotherapy, radiotherapy, surgery, and follow-up.　If the patient did not need a certain treatment such as chemotherapy, the measurement was omitted.　Treatment schedules for different patients could be different.　We compared the differences across different phases rather than different time of treatment.　Marginal model and random walk model were used to describe and examine the changes of different dimensions of QoL across different phases of treatment for each cancer.

Results: This is only the preliminary result because the data collection is ongoing.　All methods showed that the QoL became poorer during surgery and chemotherapy, and improved when active treatments ended.　The strengths and weakness of different models will be discussed.

Conclusions:　From the aspect of QoL, we should encourage patients with cancers to endure transient adverse effects of active treatments.

Acknowledgments: This study is sponsored by a grant of the National Science Council, NSC No. We also thank research assistants 賴佳君, 劉珈延, and 吳宗燕for data collection, undergraduate student Ms. 楊欣怡 for preliminary data management and analysis, and master students of biostatistics Ms. 葉爽維 and 張琇惠 for statistical analysis under the supervision of Dr. Shu-Hui Chang.