Analysis Of Postoperative Quality Of Life In Patients With Thyroid Cancer

Objective:To access the trend of postoperative quality of life(QOL)in patients with thyroid cancer and analyze its potential clinical predictors.Method:A cross-sectional analysis was designed to investigate QOL in patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer who had had thyroid surgeries and also followed up in the first affiliated hospital Zhejiang University.The study aimed to describe the trend of QOL in these patients after treatment of surgery,to compare different methods of thyroidectomy with each of 11 QOL domains and using bivariate and multivariate analyses to search the potential associations between the clinical characteristics and postsurgical QOL,Result:Postoperative QOL declines in DTC patients is observed in the earlystage,with dominant symptoms of fatigue and insomnia,while QOL tends to recover as time flows.The extent of thyroidectomy hasn't seen a significant effect on patients' QOL.Those who follows up within 12 months tend to have poor QOL in emotional,social function domains and global health score(with P value P=.002,P=.043 and P=.006 respectively),also have more complaints of insomnia(P=.023).The duration of follow-up is also associated with more neck discomfort(P=.000)and anxiety(P=.000)after surgery within 12 months.DTC patients who were more than 45 years old when diagnosed are at risk of a significant decline of postoperative QOL.Patients' risk stratification and serum TSH also associate with QOL impairment.Compared with male,female patients tend to feel severer postoperative dysphagia(P=.018),anxiety(P=.002)and reported changes in appearance(P=.010).In multivariate analyses,the duration of follow-up is the only parameter that is associate with general health score(P=.022)and multiple symptom items.Conclusion:QOL after surgical treatment in the patients with thyroid cancer was impaired within the early stage,people who was more than 45 years old at diagnose,classified as mediate or high risk of cancer recurrence and those whose serum TSH was not well controlled are at risk of poorer QOL but,eventually may restore to a better health with the lapse of time.