Role of palliative care in the quality of life in lung cancer patients in Iran

Introduction: Lung cancer is a malignant lung tumor considered by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung(۱). The burden of cancer is increasing considerably, and it remains one of the top reasons for morbidity and mortality(۲). Quality of life (QoL) is a key measure for the quality of the management and care in oncology medicine (۳). Many studies showed that palliative care had a positive effect on many clinical outcomes. This study was done to evaluate the role of palliative care in the QoL in lung cancer patients in Iran.Material and methods: This study was cross-sectional. The sample size comprised ۱۰۰ lung cancer patients who received palliative care and ۱۰۰ ones without any palliative care. The specific questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version ۱۶ with descriptive and analytic statistics. Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the QoL between those under the coverage of palliative care and not under the coverage of palliative care groups.Results: The total QoL among the group with palliative care was significantly lower than the non-palliative care group (۵۱.۴۹-۶.۸۹ VS ۵۴.۷۹-۱۲.۲۶) (P<۰.۰۵). The findings of the generalized linear regression model showed that QoL in the palliative care group was better than in the non-palliative care group (p< .۰۰۰۱). Moreover, there was a significant association between palliative care and satisfaction with the social relationship, satisfaction with treatment, limitations, and Total QoL (P<۰.۰۵). Satisfaction with treatment had a better condition in the palliative care group.Conclusion: The results proved that lung cancer patients with palliative care had significantly higher QoL than the non-palliative care group. Patients who received the non-palliative care group had higher satisfaction with treatment significantly. The most impact of palliative care was related to SDWLHQWVʼ satisfaction with the treatment process.

Keywords:

Palliative care , Quality of life , Lung Cancer , Iran