Do Clinical and Demographic Features of Patients with Upper-Gastrointestinal Cancer Affect their Health-related Quality of Life?

Background: oesophagogastric (og) cancer as a globally commonand deadly malignancy, which is widely spread in northeast iran, has anextensive impact on health-related quality of life (hrql). demographicand histopathologic changes have been apparent in oesophagogastriccancer, therefore. hrql could be used, as an outcome, to assessand determine the efficacy and impact of cancer care.methods: a consecutive sample of upper-gastrointestinal cancerpatients admitted to the main oncology/ radiotherapy departments inthe north-east of iran were recruited into the study. all participantscompleted the european organisation for research and treatment ofcancer (eortc) qlq-c30 and qlq-og25questionnaires in a faceto face interview.results: of the total 275 patients participated in the study, 54%had oesophageal, 34% stomach and 12% og junction cancers.about 73.1% had tnm (tumour, node, metastasis) staging; ofwhich 69% were in stage iii and iv. the most common type ofcancer in oesophagus was scc (95.3%) in lower third, adc instomach (97.8%) and in the og junction (93.8%). patients withstomach or og junction tended more to present in higher stages(p < 0.001). unlike qlq-c30, the eortc qlq-og25 was able todiffer patients significantly in anxiety scale (p = 0.01), body image,chocking and weight loss (p < 0.05). those who had self care abilityhad better quality of life scores (p < 0.001) in more scales and items.conclusion: scc is predominant type of upper gi cancer inkhorasan provinces similar to the high risk area in northern iran.the specific health-related quality of life tool (eortc qlqog25)was able to distinguish most of the symptoms in patientswith upper gi cancer.