TY - JOUR
AU1 - Schmidt, Martina
AU2 - Wiskemann, Joachim
AU3 - Steindorf, Karen
AB - Purpose After cancer treatment, it is desirable to maintain or regain a high quality of life (QoL) and the ability to accom- plish everyday tasks well. Therefore, we substantiated the scarce knowledge regarding long-term QoL after breast cancer, burdensome problems, and unmet needs for more support. Methods Disease-free breast cancer survivors (n = 190) who had participated in two randomized controlled exercise tri- als during primary treatment were followed up to 5 years post-diagnosis. QoL-related functions and symptoms (EORTC QLQ-C30/-BR23), health problems, and support needs were assessed. EORTC-QLQ scores were compared with age-matched normative values from the general population in Germany. Results QoL-related functions and symptoms in patients during cancer treatment were worse compared to healthy references, but largely improved over time. Yet, cognitive function and sleep were still significantly impaired at 5-year follow-up. Other common long-term problems included sexual issues (45% of survivors), hot flashes (38%), pain (34%), fatigue (24%), and polyneuropathy (21%). Regression analyses indicated fatigue having the strongest impact on global QoL. Support needs were expressed mainly for menopausal disorders (43%), physical performance (39%), sleep problems (38%), arthralgia (37%), cognitive problems (36%), weight problems (32%), and fatigue (31%). Conclusions While QoL in disease-free breast cancer survivors 5 years 
TI - Quality of life, problems, and needs of disease-free breast cancer survivors 5years after diagnosis
JF - Quality of Life Research
DO - 10.1007/s11136-018-1866-8
DA - 2018-05-08
UR - https://www.deepdyve.com/lp/springer-journals/quality-of-life-problems-and-needs-of-disease-free-breast-cancer-BN8UNyIFSJ
SP - 2077
EP - 2086
VL - 27
IS - 8
DP - DeepDyve
ER -