The goal of this study was to explore quality of life in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) in an attempt to single out features that could help predict the possibility of non-completion of chemotherapy. The survey tool was the Quality of Life Questionnaire Core-30 (QLQ-C30) with the module Lung Cancer 13 (LC-13) developed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer. The assessment of quality of life (QoL) was performed in 58 patients with advanced NSCLC before palliative chemotherapy and it was repeated in 43 patients who completed at least three cycles of chemotherapy. We found that the patients who failed to complete the chemotherapy course distinctly showed, in contradistinction to those who completed it, poor physical functioning in (67.6 ± 16.3 vs. 78.3 ± 21.3 points, respectively, p < 0.05) and the lack of appetite (27.1 ± 38.0 vs. 48.9 ± 37.5 points, respectively p < 0.05). At the end of palliative chemotherapy alopecia, sore throat, and constipation significantly worsened QoL, but global health status remained unchanged. In conclusion, poor physical functioning and loss of appetite seem to harbinger a risk of non-completion of chemotherapy in advanced NSCLC.
Keywords: Cancer symptoms; Health status; Lung cancer; Palliative chemotherapy; Physical functioning; Quality of life.