Quality of life in disease-free gastric adenocarcinoma survivors: Impacts of clinical stages and reconstructive surgical procedures

Aim: To investigate health-related quality of life data of disease-free gastric adenocarcinoma survivors, with special emphasis on the roles of clinical stages and reconstructive surgical procedures. Methods: We performed a cross-sectional study in 51 disease-free gastric adenocarcinoma patients. The patients had been followed for at least 6 ( median 17, range from 6 months to 2 years) months after initial radical surgery. The Taiwan Chinese version of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Cancer 30 ( EORTC QLQ-C30) and the supplementary gastric cancer module QLQ-STO22 were used as outcome measures. Results: Patients with earlier-/advanced-stage diseases ( American Joint Committee on Cancer stages I and II vs. III and IV) had a similar quality of life in terms of global health status and functional and symptomatic wellbeing. Subtotal gastrectomy outweighed total gastrectomy with better role function and less nausea/vomiting and appetite loss. Multivariate regression analyses also proved that proximal gastric preservation was predictive of better role function, less nausea/vomiting, and less appetite loss. Conclusions: Gastric adenocarcinoma survivors may enjoy a similar life quality, regardless of their original disease stages. Functional preservation may have marginal advantages to improve patients' quality of life by reducing symptomatic nausea, vomiting, and appetite loss postoperatively. Copyright (C) 2007 S. Karger AG, Basel.