Quality of life in cancer patients – A systematic review

Abstract

Background. Cancer is a significant health problem worldwide. Globally, cancer is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality and this is predicted to increase by at least 70% by 2030. The aim of this systematic review was to identify the state of the scientific evidence regarding the quality of life in patients. with cancer. Methods. The literature was searched in the Scopus, Web of Science and Pub Med databases, the literature related to the quality of life in cancer patients. Keywords are combined with Boolean operators (AND/OR). There are sixty studies were included in the current review. Results. The social and physical domains were the most endangered, while the environment was the most preserved. Comparison between scores showed a significant difference only in terms of self-rated health. The highest scores were found in the group with the best assessment of their health. The results suggest that self-rated health can be a reliable predictor of quality of life in these patients, being important for further studies on this topic. Discussion. The findings of this review indicate low QoL among cancer patients on anticancer therapy. Functional well-being was most affected among cancer patients, followed by emotional well-being among cancer patients on cancer therapy. From our study, it was found that the overall quality of life of the patients was influenced by the education and professional status of the patient. Unemployed and illiterate patients have worse QoL than employed and educated patients.