Assessment of Quality of Life in the Early Postoperative Period in Patients with Lung Cancer

Measuring quality of life (QoL) in patients with early-stage lung cancer is an important aspect of treatment success. This study assessed QoL in the early postoperative period in patients with lung cancer, with regard to the type of cancer. This single-center study was conducted on 64 patients who underwent surgery for non-small cell (NSCLC) and small cell (SCLC) lung cancer. Quality of life questionnaires (QLQs) of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) were used. The EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire assesses the quality of life of cancer patients, and the EORTC QLQ-LC13 questionnaire is a lung cancer module. In the group of patients with NSCLC, the general health status (p < 0.001), physical functioning (p = 0.004), emotional functioning (p = 0.005) and total functional scale (p = 0.01) were significantly better assessed, fatigue was less pronounced (p = 0.005), nausea/vomiting (p = 0.04), pain (p = 0.004), breathing difficulties were less pronounced (p = 0.03), loss of appetite was less pronounced (p = 0.005), and the symptom scale was significantly less pronounced (p = 0.002) compared to patients with SCLC. In the QLQ-LC13 symptom scale, SCLC patients had more cough (p = 0.02), dyspnea (p = 0.03), dysphagia (p = 0.005), peripheral neuropathy (p = 0.04), chest pain (p < 0.001), arm or shoulder pain (p < 0.001), and pain in other parts of the body (p = 0.005) compared to NSCLC patients. Patients with NSCLC evaluated the functioning scales better and had less pronounced symptoms on the symptom scale, while patients with SCLC evaluated the treatment symptoms worse on the symptom scale, especially the symptom of pain, which had an impact on the quality of life of the patients. The results of this study could contribute to raising public awareness about the quality of life of lung cancer patients.