Evaluation of the quality of life and symptoms among breast cancer survivors

This study was conducted to examine the quality of life and factors effecting the quality of life among breast cancer survivors. The sample of this descriptive study consisted of 141 women who completed breast cancer treatment and agreed to participate in the study. The data were collected using the "Personal Data Collection Form" containing the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of women who completed the medical breast cancer treatment, and the "EORTC QLQ-C30 Quality of Life Scale". Mann-Whitney U test, One-Way Anova, Kruskal Wallis Variance Analysis and Multiple Linear Regression Analysis were used to analyze the data. According to the EORTC QLQ-C30 Quality of Life Scale, the mean score of the Functional Scale of the women participating in the study was 68.65±19.15 (Max = 100, Minimum = 17.78), the mean score of the Symptom Scale was 29.58±20.57 (Max = 79.49, Minimum=0) and the mean score of the General Health Score was 65.89±23.12 (Maximum= 100, Minimum=0). Survivors with high Body Mass Index (BMI), those who used pain medications, and survivors who completed their medical treatment with in the last one year, had lower quality of life functional score and worse symptom experience. In addition, it was determined that women with advanced cancer stage (Stage 3) had worse quality of life symptom experience compared to those who had early stage cancer. The study shows that women who have completed breast cancer treatment had a low level of quality of life. It is recommended that interventions aiming to increase the quality of life should be planned to meet particularly the needs of women with a high BMI, who used pain medication, had advanced cancer stage and are with in the first year of cancer treatment completion.