Quality Of Life In Early Breast Cancer Patients Using Different Adjuvant Chemotherapy Regimen

Objectives:To analyze and compare the difference of quality of life before and after chemotherapy between different adjuvant regimens (TC and FEC regimen).Methods:Twenty seven early breast cancer patients (stageⅡa, KPS≥80, age 36-68) were prospectively included in division of surgical oncology in 2nd hospital affiliated to Zhejiang University between July 2010 and February 2011. Health-related quality of life was assessed for baseline, beginning and the end of chemotherapy cycles, using European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire simplified Chinese version (EORTC QLQ-C30) and EORTC breast cancer module-23.Results:Among all the 27 early breast cancer patients, twelve patients received TC regimen, while 15 patients received FEC regimen. The Global health status/QOL of all the patients became worse after chemotherapy compared to the baseline assessment, however, there was no significant difference of global health status/QOL between the beginning and the end of the chemotherapy cycles. At baseline and after the first chemotherapy, there was no significant difference of quality of life between the two groups. After the end of the chemotherapy cycles, patients received TC regimen had higher score in physical functioning assessment than FEC regimen (p<0.05), and patients with FEC regimen had higher score in role functioning assessment than TC regimen (p<0.05). And FEC regimen resulted in more serious symptoms like Fatigue, Nausea and vomiting than TC regimen (p<0.05). Other QOL indicators had no significant difference between two chemotherapy regimens.Conclusion:Despite the fact that the two chemotherapy regimens (TC and FEC) can both lead to deteriorations in quality of life in early breast cancer patients, no significant difference is observed between the two groups.