Aim
To identify tools used in the literature to measure quality of life (QOL) among pancreatic cancer patients following resection and synthesise results of these studies.
Methods
A comprehensive search strategy was undertaken in three major medical databases: PubMed, Embase and Medline. After removal of duplicates, an abstract and title search was conducted on 1790 articles, which identified 246 full-texts for review against the inclusion/exclusion criteria. A total of 52 articles fulfilled the inclusion criteria and 41 were included for qualitative synthesis.
Results
Eighteen QOL tools were used in the 52 included studies and 21 studies used more than one tool to assess QOL. The EORTC QLQ-C30 was the most frequently utilised tool (n=28 studies) with a pooled population of 3,060 patients, followed by the SF-36 (n=6) with 844 patients. Five disease-specific tools were identified, and less than half (n=23) of included studies utilised these tools. The EORTC QLQ-Pan26 was the most frequently used disease-specific tool (n=12) with a pooled population of 979 patients, closely followed by the FACT-Hep (n=7) with a pooled population of 757 patients. Several studies reported improvements in the global health and some symptoms (i.e. pain) over time after surgery, but for many the change was not statistically significant. After major resections, patients’ physical and emotional status decreased and some symptoms such as fatigue, treatment burden and energy increased significantly in the short term (within six months), however return towards baseline in the longer term after six months.
Conclusions
This review identified great heterogeneity of tools used to assess QOL among pancreatic cancer patients, and less than half of studies utilised disease-specific tools. Standardisation of QOL tools between studies would provide better insight into the QOL trajectory of these patients post-operatively. Further research is needed to better assess QoL in these patients.