Abstrait

Quality of life (QOL) of Patients Suffering with Various Types of Cancers: Assessment of Severity of Anemia

Kaiser Jamil

p>One of the key factors controlling the Quality of life (QOL) in many diseases is Anemia, which needs addressing, as it leads to co-morbidities and is an important parameter in optimal QOL. In our study we have found about 60-75% of the cancer patients invariably developed anemia most of them were at various stages of the disease. In such cases treatment options become very limited, hence the option remaining for such subjects is mainly palliative care. In the event of disease progression to advanced stages, QOL issues become an integral part of decision- making about various treatment options. Further the need to consider several key factors, such as age, gender, co-morbidities, and quality of supportive care which affects QOL in patients becomes important. Poor diet and fatigue overtakes the form of adverse effects which burdens the patients and impacts on survival and QOL. Looking at a wide range of cancers we found that anemia was most prevalent in hematological malignancies, followed by breast cancer, stomach, head and neck cancers. The challenges faced by the attending clinician were to determine the probable causes that relate to various therapeutic protocols, which had to be dealt-with individually along with management strategies. In conclusion, we have suggested improvement in dietary conditions is of prime importance to build immunity and to counter severity of anemia. This is the first report in cancer patients which correlated anemia as an important factor as it affects QOL and survivability rates.