Article - Comment

Quality of life of testicular cancer survivors and the relationship with sociodemographics, cancerrelated variables, and life events

  • Sinan Basay

Bull Urooncol 2006;5(4):12-14

Goals of work: The aim of this study was to (1) assess the quality of life (QoL) of testicular cancer survivors (TCSs) by comparing them to a reference group; (2) investigate the relationship between the QoL of TCSs and sociodemographics, cancer- related variables, and life events; and (3) identify TCSs at risk for an impaired QoL. Patients and methods: Of the TCSs approached, 50% (n=354) participated and com pleted a generic QoL questionnaire (RAND-36) once. Time since com pletion of treatment varied from 3 months to 24 years. Main results: TCSs had significantly higher mean scores on the subscales physical functioning (p=0.02) and pain (p=0.001), but lower mean scores on mental health (p=0.04) and vitality (p Conclusions: On a group level, TCSs experience a good QoL, but a small group appeared to be at risk for an impaired functioning, namely, those who were unemployed and had a chronic disease. The variance ex plained by the variables studied was low, indicating that more important predictors remain to be identified.