Women with Lung Cancer: Impact on Quality of Life

The purpose of this study was to describe disruptions in quality of life (QOL) in women suffering from lung cancer, the leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. QOL was measured with the CARES-SF. Symptom distress was measured with the modified Symptom Distress Scale, and functional status was measured with the Karnofsky Performance Status Scale. Sixty-nine women with lung cancer participated in a one-time data collection. The typical subject was under 65 years of age, married, has had primary or recurrent non-small cell lung cancer for over 12 months, had limited disease, and was not currently receiving treatment. Subjects had greater disruptions in global QOL and its dimensions compared to a normative heterogeneous female cancer sample. The most prevalent serious disruptions were fatigue, difficulty with household chores, worry about ability to care for self, and worry about cancer progression. The global CARES-SF score was moderately correlated to functional status (r = 0.69, p = < 0.001), and to symptom distress (r = 0.72, p = < 0.001). Symptom distress was associated strongly with the physical subscale of QOL (r = 0.80, p = 0.001) and significantly but less strongly with all other dimensions of QOL. Significantly greater differences in disruptions of quality of life occurred in women younger than 65 years (p = 0.04), women with recurrent disease (p = 0.003), and women with low income (p = 0.008). In stepwise regression, symptom distress predicted 53% of the variance followed by functional status (59%) and recurrence (63%) when QOL was the outcome variable.