‘Predictors of quality of life in breast cancer patients under chemotherapy’ Brief Review

This article was fairly routine, and contributed some minor value to my research. The lack of a location, however, really subtracted from the possible use case that this article could have had. Generally, I am at the point in my research where I’m mostly looking to fill holes, either by analyzing a study from a country I haven’t yet analyzed or by having a preconceived notion greatly altered or expanded on. This paper, while absolutely still valuable, didn’t do either of those for me.

I will say that the sampling of a population with fairly low employment statistics was a unique perspective, at least in theory. In actuality, though, it seems that most outcomes remained similar to those of a more normal population. There was, admittedly, some difference in the results concerning length of treatment and QOL, but both scenarios in such an instance always felt reasonable to me. Either those in treatment for less time have worse QOL, and so are likely simply less adjusted to the severity of treatment, or those in treatment for more time have worse QOL, which is almost self-explanatory. Unsurprisingly, the two most constant determinants of QOL were found to have had significant effects in this study, those being occupational status and financial difficulty.

There are two references I will likely check out from this study, those being Predictors of quality of life in newly diagnosed melanoma and breast cancer patients and The impact of age and clinical factors on quality of life in early breast cancer: An analysis of 2208 women recruited to the UK START Trial.