Quality of Life and its Related Factors Among Iranian Patients with Metastatic Gastrointestinal Tract Cancer: A Cross-sectional Study

CONTEXT: Quality of life (QoL) is an important issue in all cancer patients; especially in patients with metastatic cancer. But there is very little information available about QoL in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer. AIMS: The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of life and its associated factors among Iranian patients with metastatic gastrointestinal tract cancer. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this cross-sectional study, a total of 250 patients with metastatic gastrointestinal tract cancer were recruited from the one oncology center related to the Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences, Sari, between March 2012 and August 2013. Their QoL was evaluated using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire (Persian version). RESULTS: In this study, the overall QoL score of patients with gastrointestinal tract cancer was 57.63, which was relatively optimal. There was a statistically significant relationship between symptoms scale and general health status domains of quality of life with age (P < 0.05). Also, there was a significant association between patients’ gender and their social functioning (P = 0.017) and also their emotional functioning (P = 0.015). CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that in patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancers, the most affected functions in their QoL were social and emotional functioning which get worse with age. Thus, providing psychological counseling and psychotherapy services to deliver culturally appropriate mental health care and social support for these patients and their families’ which can lead to the improvement of QoL in these patients is strongly recommended.