Comparison of LADG to ODG in patients with early gastric cancer resulted in improved QOL outcomes in the patients followed for up to 3 months in the LADG group.

No abstract

Prediagnosis risk factors for cancer development (smoking, alcohol consumption, obesity, and insulin resistance) had a statistically significant effect on survival among male cancer patients.

We performed this study to examine the prevalence and correlates of fatigue and depression, and their relevance to health-related quality of life in disease-free breast cancer survivors. A total of 1,933 breast cancer survivors recruited from five large hospitals in Korea completed a mailed survey, which included the Brief Fatigue Inventory, Beck Depression Inventory, European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30, and QLQ-BR23. With a framework that included sociodemographic, clinical, and symptom characteristics, multivariate logistic regression models were used to identify factors associated with fatigue and depression. Among breast cancer survivors, 66.1% reported moderate to severe fatigue and 24.9% reported moderate to severe depression. Risk factors common to both fatigue and depression were lower income, dyspnea, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, and arm symptoms. Risk factors for fatigue only included younger age, employment, presence of gastrointestinal disease, and pain. Having a musculoskeletal disease was identified as a risk factor for depression only. Both fatigue and depression were influenced by sociodemographic factors, comorbidity and symptom characteristics rather than cancer or treatment-related factors. Both fatigue and depression were negatively associated with survivors' health-related quality of life. However, the patterns of differences in health-related quality of life according to severity of fatigue or depression were similar. This concurrent examination of risk factors for fatigue and depression may be helpful in the development of clinical management strategies in disease-free breast cancer survivors.

An Internet-based education program based on NCCN guidelines and TTM may help patients manage CRF.

This study evaluated the Korean version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 (version 3.0) in terms of psychometric properties and its validation. One hundred and seventy patients completed three questionnaires EORTC QLQ-C30, the Beck depression inventory (BDI), and a brief pain inventory (BPI). Multitrait scaling analyses demonstrated that all scales met multidimensional conceptualization criteria, in terms of convergence and discrimination validity. Cronbach's alpha coefficients for eight multiple-item scales were greater than 0.70, with the exception of cognitive functioning. All interscale correlations were statistically significant in the expected direction (p < 0.01). Multivariate analyses showed that physical and emotional functioning were significant explanatory variables for the global quality-of-life (QOL) scale (regression coefficients: 0.36, p < 0.001; and 0.37, p < 0.001; respectively). All scales were significantly associated with pain severity and interference of the BPI, and with the cognitive-affective and somatic scales of the BDI. The emotional-functioning scale was substantially correlated with the cognitive-affective scale and somatic scale of the BDI. These results demonstrate that the Korean version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 is a valid instrument for evaluating Korean-speaking patients with cancer, and can be used to distinguish clearly between subgroups of patients of differing performance status.

Depression was highly prevalent among cancer patient family caregivers, and care burden was its best predictor. Interventions aimed at reducing the psychiatric effects of cancer should focus not only on the patient but also on the caregiver.

Our findings suggest that the effect of hospital volume and surgical treatment delay on overall survival of cancer patients should be considered in formulating or revising national health policy.