Abstract:
Objective To analyze the quality of life (QOL) of advanced breast cancer patients after receiving high-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous peripheral blood stem cells, and to provide evidence for selecting the effective intervening measure to improve QOL of patients. Methods We retrospectively analyzed 25 advanced breast cancer patients who were treated with high-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous peripheral blood stem cells and 22 patients who received conventional-dose therapy as the control group. SF-12, the revised version of health survey scale SF-36 (MOS36-item short forum health survey) was used at three time points, T1(before the treatment), T2(before the 2nd cycle of high-dose chemotherapy and the 4th cycle of conventional-dose chemotherapy ) and T3(3 months after the treatment). T test was used for statistical analysis. Results At T2 point, 8 variables of QOL of patients treated with high-dose and conventional-dose chemotherapy were significantly decreased compared with those at T1 point. At T3 point, the vitality and social function were still significantly decreased compared with those at T1 point (P<0.05). Other variables had no significant difference. At T2 point, the general health, physical function, vitality and social function in the high-dose chemotherapy group were decreased significantly compared with those in the conventional-dose chemotherapy group (P<0.05). No significant difference was observed between the two groups at T1 or T3 points. Conclusion High-dose chemotherapy supported by autologous peripheral blood stem cells led to significant reduction of QOL of advanced breast cancer patients, especially the general health, physical function, vitality and social function. However, high-dose chemotherapy could shorten the treatment time and the patients could resume their normal lives faster.