RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Quality of life and cancer-related needs in patients with choroidal melanoma
JF British Journal of Ophthalmology
JO Br J Ophthalmol
FD BMJ Publishing Group Ltd.
SP 1471
OP 1474
DO 10.1136/bjophthalmol-2013-303635
VO 97
IS 11
A1 Joshua F Wiley
A1 Kelsey Laird
A1 Tammy Beran
A1 Tara A McCannel
A1 Annette L Stanton
YR 2013
UL http://bjo.bmj.com/content/97/11/1471.abstract
AB Aims To assess quality of life (QoL) indices and their associations with treatment modality, sociodemographics and cancer-related needs in choroidal melanoma patients. Methods Patients (N=99) treated at the University of California, Los Angeles, for choroidal melanoma within the prior 5 years (M=2.05) completed questionnaires assessing demographics, cancer-related needs, vision-specific QoL, depressive symptoms and concern about recurrence. Visual acuity, comorbidities, treatment modality (radiotherapy, enucleation) and years since diagnosis were gathered from medical records. Primary analyses were multiple regressions. Results Although concern about cancer recurrence was elevated, QoL was better than in other oncology samples and comparable with healthy samples on some outcomes. Enucleation was associated with worse vision-specific QoL, and presence of comorbid diseases was associated with worse vision-specific QoL, depressive symptoms and concern about cancer recurring (all p values<0.05). Patients who experienced at least one stressful life event in the past year (vs no events) reported more depressive symptoms (p<0.01). Report of more unmet cancer needs was associated with worse vision-specific QoL, depressive symptoms and more concern about recurrence (all p values<0.05), uniquely explaining 4%–12% of the variance. Conclusions For choroidal melanoma patients, an average of 2 years after treatment, the number of physical comorbidities and unmet cancer needs were the strongest correlates of poorer QoL.