MON-506 Assessment of Quality of Life in Persons with Thyroid Cancer and Thyroid Nodules: A Single Center Experience

INTRODUCTION: Despite an excellent prognosis and survival rate, quality of life (QOL) in thyroid cancer is lower than expected. QOL in thyroid cancer survivors is similar to persons with colon and gynecologic cancers, but worse than breast cancer.(1) The SF-36 QOL questionnaire has shown to be a valid tool for assessing QOL in thyroid cancer subjects.(2) We evaluated QOL in both thyroid nodule and thyroid cancer patients in an institutional cancer registry. METHODS: The Short Form-36 data version 2 (SF-36) QOL data was obtained from single institution prospective bioinformatics thyroid cancer and benign nodule registry. Physical and mental health scores from the SF-36 questionnaire were obtained from both thyroid cancer and nodule patients. Physical and mental QOL responses were scored on a scale from 20-80 and categorized as either “the same or better than the average population,”; “below average,”; or “well below average.” A two sample Wilcoxon rank sum test and a chi-squared test were used to compare QOL between thyroid cancer and nodule subjects, using QOL as a continuous or categorical variable. Univariate descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were performed using a Wilcoxon Rank Sum and Chi-squared test for categorical QOL data and Kruskal-Wallis for continuous QOL data. RESULTS: We analyzed 321 thyroid cancer and 32 nodule subjects who completed the SF-36 at a single point in time after diagnosis. There was no difference between the groups with regard to sex, age or QOL scores overall. Average age was 43 and 48 years in cancer and nodule groups respectively. Average Physical QOL score was 50.8 (standard deviation SD + 8.8) and 29.6 (SD+ 12.1), respectively (p=0.42). Average Mental QOL score was 48.9 (SD + 9.9) and 48.3 (SD + 8.1) respectively, p=0.16. Physical QOL score was significantly decreased as cancer stage increased when evaluating results as a continuous variable: Stage 1: 51.8 + 8.7; Stage 2: 50.6 +9.5; Stage 3: 48.7 + 7.2; Stage 4: 47.4 + 9.2. Results for mental QOL as a continuous variable by cancer stage showed improvement in reported QOL with increasing cancer stage: Stage 1: 48 (SD+ 9.9); Stage 2: 50.6 (SD + 11.1); Stage 3: 51.1 (SD + 9.13); Stage 4: 53 (SD+ 6.4), p=0.03. CONCLUSIONS: We found no overall difference in physical nor mental QOL between patients with thyroid cancer or benign thyroid nodules. Overall, QOL was in the “same or better than average” for all respondents, but low cancer stage was associated with higher physical and lower mental QOL scores. REFERENCES: 1. Barbus, Elena & Peştean, Claudiu & Iulia Larg, Maria & Piciu, Doina. (2016). Quality of life in thyroid cancer patients: A literature review. Clujul Medical. 90. 10.15386/cjmed-703 2. Lubitz CC, De Gregorio L, Fingeret AL, et al. Measurement and Variation in Estimation of Quality of Life Effects of Patients Undergoing Treatment for Papillary Thyroid Carcinoma. Thyroid. 2017;27(2):197-206. doi:10.1089/thy.2016.0260