Quality of life in patients with stage III non-small-cell lung cancer during multimodality treatment

Quality of life (QL) was studied in 185 patients with stage III non-small cell lung cancer at the stages of multimodality treatment involving neoadjuvant chemotherapy with paclitaxel/carboplatin, radical surgery, and intraoperative radiotherapy (the single dose was 10 and 15 Gy) in the presence of gemzar or cisplatin radiosensitization. The EORTC QLQ-30 (version 3.0) and EORTC QLQ-LC13 questionnaires were used to estimate QL. The latter was shown to be determined by the performed courses of chemotherapy and the volume of surgical intervention. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy increases physical functioning (92.3±2.3%) and total health status (71.1±3.9%) versus the pretreatment values (81.4±3.3 and 61.8±4.1%, respectively). After surgical treatment, the functional parameters of QL depend on the volume of surgery: the results of pneumonectomy were worse (56.3±5.7) than those of lung resection (66.5±4.5%). Intraoperative radiotherapy in a single dose of 10 and 15 Gy, gemzar or cisplatin radiosensitization exerted no impact on QL indicators. The final stage of rehabilitation after multimodality treatment is performed at a 12-24-month interval.

non-small cell lung cancer, multimodality treatment, quality of life