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Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) substantially affects cancer patients due to adverse outcomes and disruptions in cancer care. Recent studies have indicated the additional stress and anxiety burden arising from the pandemic and impairing quality of life in this vulnerable group of patie...

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Autores principales: Alexander, Andrea, Fung, Stephen, Eichler, Martin, Lehwald-Tywuschik, Nadja, Uthayakumar, Vasuki, Safi, Sami-Alexander, Vay, Christian, Ashmawy, Hany, Kalmuk, Sinan, Rehders, Alexander, Vaghiri, Sascha, Knoefel, Wolfram Trudo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8948872/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35329416
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063731
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author Alexander, Andrea
Fung, Stephen
Eichler, Martin
Lehwald-Tywuschik, Nadja
Uthayakumar, Vasuki
Safi, Sami-Alexander
Vay, Christian
Ashmawy, Hany
Kalmuk, Sinan
Rehders, Alexander
Vaghiri, Sascha
Knoefel, Wolfram Trudo
author_facet Alexander, Andrea
Fung, Stephen
Eichler, Martin
Lehwald-Tywuschik, Nadja
Uthayakumar, Vasuki
Safi, Sami-Alexander
Vay, Christian
Ashmawy, Hany
Kalmuk, Sinan
Rehders, Alexander
Vaghiri, Sascha
Knoefel, Wolfram Trudo
author_sort Alexander, Andrea
collection PubMed
description Background: Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) substantially affects cancer patients due to adverse outcomes and disruptions in cancer care. Recent studies have indicated the additional stress and anxiety burden arising from the pandemic and impairing quality of life in this vulnerable group of patients. However, patients with cancer represent a heterogenous group. Therefore, we conducted a study on patients with pancreatic cancer, requiring demanding surgical interventions and chemotherapy regimens due to its aggressive tumor biology, to explore the pandemic’s impact on quality of life within this homogenous cohort. Methods: In a descriptive observational study, the quality of life of patients who had undergone pancreatic surgery for tumor resection at our institution between 2014 and the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 was assessed. For HRQoL measurement, we used the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), comparing their situation before the pandemic and since its beginning. An additional self-developed questionnaire was applied to assess the life circumstances during the pandemic. Results: Our cohort included 26 patients. Scores from the survey in HRQoL revealed no significant changes over time between before and during the pandemic. A medium deterioration in HRQoL was apparent in social functioning, as well as a small deterioration in role functioning and emotional functioning. Worries concerning a potential impact of COVID-19 on personal health were expressed. Psychological limitations in QoL were mainly attributed to the pandemic, whereas physical limitations in QoL were rather associated with the underlying disease of pancreatic cancer. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing considerable social and emotional distress among pancreatic cancer patients. These patients will benefit from psychological support during the pandemic and beyond. Long-time survivors of pancreatic cancer, such as those included in our cohort, appear to have improved resilience facing the psychosocial challenges of the pandemic. For pancreatic cancer, surgical care is considered the cornerstone of treatment. Prolonged delays in healthcare cause serious damage to mental and physical health. To date, the longer-term clinical consequences are not known and can only be estimated. The potential tragic outcome for the vulnerable group of pancreatic cancer patients highlights the urgency of timely healthcare decisions to be addressed in the future.
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spelling pubmed-89488722022-03-26 Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic Alexander, Andrea Fung, Stephen Eichler, Martin Lehwald-Tywuschik, Nadja Uthayakumar, Vasuki Safi, Sami-Alexander Vay, Christian Ashmawy, Hany Kalmuk, Sinan Rehders, Alexander Vaghiri, Sascha Knoefel, Wolfram Trudo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article Background: Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) substantially affects cancer patients due to adverse outcomes and disruptions in cancer care. Recent studies have indicated the additional stress and anxiety burden arising from the pandemic and impairing quality of life in this vulnerable group of patients. However, patients with cancer represent a heterogenous group. Therefore, we conducted a study on patients with pancreatic cancer, requiring demanding surgical interventions and chemotherapy regimens due to its aggressive tumor biology, to explore the pandemic’s impact on quality of life within this homogenous cohort. Methods: In a descriptive observational study, the quality of life of patients who had undergone pancreatic surgery for tumor resection at our institution between 2014 and the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020 was assessed. For HRQoL measurement, we used the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), comparing their situation before the pandemic and since its beginning. An additional self-developed questionnaire was applied to assess the life circumstances during the pandemic. Results: Our cohort included 26 patients. Scores from the survey in HRQoL revealed no significant changes over time between before and during the pandemic. A medium deterioration in HRQoL was apparent in social functioning, as well as a small deterioration in role functioning and emotional functioning. Worries concerning a potential impact of COVID-19 on personal health were expressed. Psychological limitations in QoL were mainly attributed to the pandemic, whereas physical limitations in QoL were rather associated with the underlying disease of pancreatic cancer. Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic is causing considerable social and emotional distress among pancreatic cancer patients. These patients will benefit from psychological support during the pandemic and beyond. Long-time survivors of pancreatic cancer, such as those included in our cohort, appear to have improved resilience facing the psychosocial challenges of the pandemic. For pancreatic cancer, surgical care is considered the cornerstone of treatment. Prolonged delays in healthcare cause serious damage to mental and physical health. To date, the longer-term clinical consequences are not known and can only be estimated. The potential tragic outcome for the vulnerable group of pancreatic cancer patients highlights the urgency of timely healthcare decisions to be addressed in the future. MDPI 2022-03-21 /pmc/articles/PMC8948872/ /pubmed/35329416 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063731 Text en © 2022 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Alexander, Andrea
Fung, Stephen
Eichler, Martin
Lehwald-Tywuschik, Nadja
Uthayakumar, Vasuki
Safi, Sami-Alexander
Vay, Christian
Ashmawy, Hany
Kalmuk, Sinan
Rehders, Alexander
Vaghiri, Sascha
Knoefel, Wolfram Trudo
Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Quality of Life in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer before and during the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort quality of life in patients with pancreatic cancer before and during the covid-19 pandemic
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8948872/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35329416
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19063731
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