Quality of life after lung cancer surgery: sublobar resection versus lobectomy

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to compare the postoperative quality of life (PQOL) between non–small–cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients who underwent video–assisted thoracoscopic sublobar resection (subsegment, segment, or wedge) and lobectomy. Meanwhile, we developed a PQOL scale for patients with NSCLC after optimization. METHODS: Developing and evaluating the postoperative quality–of–life scale of non–small–cell lung cancer (NSCLC–PQOL) followed by the international principles for developing quality–of–life scale. Therefore, we used the NSCLC–PQOL scale to evaluate the PQOL of patients who underwent different surgeries. RESULTS: The overall PQOL of patients who underwent video-assisted thoracoscopic lobectomy and sublobar resection gradually worsened from discharge to 3 months postoperatively and progressively improved from three to 6 months postoperatively. And the sublobar resection group showed better PQOL in chest tightness, breath shortness, breathlessness, cough and expectoration than the lobectomy group, and the differences were statistically significant (P < 0.05). The final version of the NSCLC–PQOL contained three dimensions: “signs–symptoms”, “psychological and psychiatric”, and “social–life” dimensions. CONCLUSIONS: The sublobar resection group showed better PQOL in “chest tightness”, “breath shortness”, “breathlessness”, “cough”, and “expectoration” than the lobectomy group. Twenty–two items formed a well–behaved PQOL scale after being validated satisfactorily. The scale was a suitable rating tool for evaluating the NSCLC–PQOL of patients. TRIAL REGISTRATION: As this study was a retrospective study and not a clinical trial, we did not register this study in the Chinese Clinical Trial Registry. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12893-023-02259-1.