Quality of life among cervical cancer patients following completion of chemo-radiotherapy at Ocean Road Cancer Institute (ORCI) in Tanzania

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Abstract Objective: Effective cancer treatment involves aggressive chemo-radiotherapy protocols that alter survivors’ quality of life (QOL). This has recently aroused the attention not only to focus on clinical care but rather to be holistic and client-centered, looking beyond morbidity and mortality. The study assessed the QOL and associated factors among patients with cervical cancer (CC) after the completion of chemo-radiotherapy.Methods: A cross-sectional analytical study was conducted at Ocean Road Institute (ORCI) from September to November 2020. A total of 323 CC patients were interviewed with a structured questionnaire of QOL. The QOL domains, socio-demographic and clinical variables were analyzed with Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis on SPSS version 23, and a P<0.05 was considered significant.Results: More than half (54.8%) of the CC patients had a good overall QOL. Overall, QOL was affected by education (P=0.019), smoking (0.044), sexual partner (P=0.000), treatment modality (P=0.018), and time since completion of treatment (P=0.021). External beam radiation had a significant symptomatology (P<0.05) while combined external beam radiation and brachytherapy had higher functioning in most domains (P<0.05). Conclusions: A significant improvement in QOL was observed after chemo-radiotherapy and was affected by socio-demographic and clinical variables. Thus, calls for individualized care addressing distressing symptoms.

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