Evaluation Of Quality Of Life In Patients With Lung Cancer Complicated With Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease And The Impact Of Inhaled Therapy On The Quality Of Life In These Patients

Objective:To assess the effectiveness of the chronic obstructive pulmonary disease assessment test(CAT) and the St.George’s respiratory questionnaire(SGRQ) for evaluating the quality of life(QOL) in patients with lung cancer complicated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(LC-COPD);To explore the change of QOL in LC-COPD patients after a 3 months’ inhaled therapy for COPD.Methods: The study enrolled 93 cases of patients with lung cancer complicated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease from February 2014 to February 2015,and the inhaled therapy was conducted for these patients in the next 3 months.All cases were divided into irregular treatment group as the patients couldn’t follow the advice very well during the 3 months and the regular treatment group,which includes A、B、C、D four groups with good compliable to the inhaled treatment.All the 93 patients completed CAT and SGRQ before the inhaled therapy and after 3months of the treatment.Results:1. There were 196 lung cancer patients completing the spirometry from February 2014 to February 2015, 101 of them were diagnosed with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(occupied 51.5%),and ultimately 96 patients were included in our study.2. Before and after the 3 months’ inhaled treatment,all patients’ CAT score is significantly positively correlated with SGRQ symptoms section score,activity section score、impacts section score and the total score(p<0.05).And the two CAT scores’ change is also significantly positively correlated with the change of the two SGRQ symptoms section scores,activity section scores、impacts section scores and the total scores(p<0.05).3. Before the inhaled therapy,the CAT score between the regular treatment group and the irregular treatment group shows no significant difference(p>0.05),and after a 3 months’ inhaled treatment,the CAT score of the the regular treatment group is significantly lower than of the irregular treatment group(p<0.05).4. After a 3 months’ inhaled treatment,the CAT score of regular treatment group A、B、D is lower than before,which shows statistically significant difference(p <0.05),and the regular treatment group C and the irregular treatment group show no significant difference(p>0.05) of the two CAT scores.5. The SGRQ symptoms section score、activity section score、impacts section score and total score of regular treatment group A、B、D are all getting lower after a 3 months’ inhaled treatment,showing statistically significant difference(p <0.05).The regular treatment group C just has a significant decline(p <0.05) of the SGRQ activity section score. To the irregular treatment group,only the SGRQ symptoms section score has a rise than before after 3 months,which shows statistically significant difference(p <0.05), but the SGRQ activity section score、impacts section score and total score show no significant difference(p>0.05).Conclusion:1. CAT and SGRQ have the similar assessment ability for evaluating both the quality of life or the change of quality of life after the treatment in patients with lung cancer complicated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.2. CAT is comparatively simple and easy to use,it’s more applied in clinic,and it can be used assisted with the forced expiratory volume in one second(FEV1) to get an overall evaluation of the COPD.3. The prevalence of lung cancer complicated by chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is comparatively high in clinic,so we advocate an early diagnosis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by the routine spirometry in lung cancer patients.4. With the regular inhaled treatment,the quality of life in patients with lung cancer complicated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease can be improved,the patients’ symptoms can be relieved,activity can get improvement and the impact of the disease can be reduced to some degree.