Comparing The Quality Of Life And Survival Between Postoperative Patients With Stage IB-Ⅲ Gastric Cancer Undergoing Chemoradiotherapy Or Chemotherapy Alone

Objective：To compare the quality of life(QOL)3months after adjuvant therapy betweenpostoperative chemoradiotherapy and postoperative chemotherapy alone in patientswith stage IB-III gastric cancer, and evaluate the efficacy of the two groups.Methods：During April2009to June2012,265postoperative gastric cancer patients withstage I-III who had completed adjuvant treatments in the First Affiliated Hospital ofNanchang University were enrolled in this study. All patients except17cases whoprogressed or lost to follow-up within3months had been investigated in the surveyrelated to QOL3months after adjuvant therapy and survival.Research group includes128patients undergoing concurrent chemoradiotherapy and control group includes120patients undergoing adjuvant chemotherapy alone.The investigation includes theself-made general situation questionnaire, European Organization for Research andTreatment of Cancer Core quality of life scale（EORTC QLQ-C30）(V3.0) Chineseversion,gastric cancer-specific scale（EORTC QLQ-STO22）.The Kaplan-Meiermethod and log-rank test were used to analysis survival rate, the t-test and one-wayANOVA were used to compare the difference in QOL.Results：(1)The total score of QOL was72.37±17.82for research group and75.13±19.64for control group, but there was no significantly statistical difference(P=0.249).TheQOL with regard to physical function,role function,fatigue,nausea and vomiting,pain,appetite loss,diarrhea,economic difficulties,dysphagia,reflux,eating restrictions,taste,body image of research group was inferior to that of control group,but there wasno significantly statistical difference(all P>0.05).(2)63.3%of the patients in research group had their weight down by5%andabove compared with before chemotherapy,and45%in control group(P=0.004).Besides, steatorrhea occured in seven research group patients(5.5%),while the controlgroup was not found(P=0.027). (3)Univariate analysis indicated that there was statistical difference in age,income, pathological stage,educational background and occupation among the generalQOL(P<0.05).(4)Multiple linear regression analysis revealed that the major factors related toQOL in postoperative gastric cancer patients included income(P=0.000), pathologicalstage(P=0.024) and educational background(P=0.032).(5) Fifteen of the248patients lost to follow-up. The1-,2-and3-year survivalrate of119research group patients was98.4%,86.4%and78.9%,respectively, ascompared with97.5%，81.0%and68.2%in114control group patients.There wasstatistical difference between two groups (P=0.024).Conclusions：The QOL had no significant difference3months after adjvant therapy betweenpostoperative chemoradiotherapy and postoperative chemotherapy alone in patientswith stage IB-III gastric cancer. Patients undergoing chemoradiotherapy can improvethe3-year survival rate comparing with chemotherapy alone.