Juliana Franceschini, Alecssandra Aparecida dos Santos, Inás El Mouallem, Sergio Jamnik,
César Uehara, Ana Luisa Godoy Fernandes, Ilka Lopes Santoro
Objective: To assess the quality of life of patients with lung cancer and to compare it with that of individuals without cancer. Methods: The
Medical Outcomes Study 36-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) was administered to 57 patients diagnosed with lung cancer, treated
at the Lung Cancer Outpatient Clinic of the Hospital São Paulo, and to a control group of 57 individuals recruited from the Extra Penha
workout group. The Mann-Whitney test was used to compare the groups, domain by domain. The first model of logistic regression was
adjusted for male gender, nonsurgical treatment, Karnofsky performance status and smoking, which were included as predictors. The second
model was adjusted for each SF-36 domain in order to identify increases in the proportions of patients in stage IIIB or IV. Results: The lung
cancer group and the control group presented the following mean scores, respectively, for the SF-36 domains: role limitations due to physical
health problems, 29.39 ± 36.94 and 82.89 ± 28.80; role limitations due to emotional problems, 42.78 ± 44.78 and 86.55 ± 28.77; physical
function, 56.49 ± 28.39 and 89.00 ± 13.80; vitality, 61.61 ± 23.82 and 79.12 ± 17.68; bodily pain, 62.72 ± 28.72 and 81.54 ± 19.07; general
health, 62.51 ± 25.57 and 84.47 ± 13.47; emotional well-being, 68.28 ± 23.46 and 82.63 ± 17.44; and social functioning, 72.87 ± 29.20 and
91.67 ± 17.44. The logistic regression model showed that role limitations due to physical health problems, physical function and emotional
well-being were predictors of stages IIIB and IV. Conclusions: The patients with lung cancer had a poorer quality of life, especially
regarding physical aspects, than did the control subjects.
Keywords: Lung neoplasms; Quality of life; Health status.