Factors influencing health-related quality of life in patients with bladder or kidney cancer: a prospective cohort study of the impact of nutritional status and frailty phenotype.

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the impact of nutritional status and frailty phenotype and the predictors of temporal changes on health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with bladder or kidney cancer.

Methods: Frailty phenotype, Patient-Generated Subjective Global Assessment, and Quality-of-life questionnaire Core-30 were applied twice to patients diagnosed with bladder or kidney cancer. Patients also completed a sociodemographic questionnaire, and clinical data were collected from records.

Results: Sixty-two individuals completed the study, mostly male, with a mean age of 62.5 (± 11.4) years. The median time of follow-up was 14.5 months. Role functioning, emotional functioning, and fatigue improved over time (p < 0.05). The factors that negatively affected the long-term quality of life summary score were being female, malnourished, pre-frail and frail, cancer treatment, performance status, and lower income. Using the multivariate model, being malnourished (β =  - 7.25; 95% CI, - 10.78 to - 3.71; p < 0.001), frail (β =  - 7.25; 95% CI, - 13.39 to - 1.11; p = 0.021), and each one-point increase in performance status (β =  - 6.9; 95% CI, - 9.54 to - 4.26; p < 0.001), were the ones that most negatively impacted the HRQoL between the two assessments.

Conclusion: This study confirmed that frailty, nutritional status, and performance status are the main predictors of HRQoL of patients with bladder or kidney cancer over time.

Implications for cancer survivors: These findings may be the first step towards highlighting the importance of preventing malnutrition and frailty, in favor of a better long-term QoL for cancer patients.