PURPOSE: Quality of life of @entity0 survivors 8 years after diagnosis was compared with that among similarly aged @entity1 who had never confronted @entity5 (controls). METHODS: Survivors of a consecutive series of 227 @entity0 @entity1 first treated in 1984 were approached for this study. Random-digit dialing was used to identify controls with the same age and residential distribution as the survivors. Quality of life was assessed in terms of physical health, functional status, psychologic distress, and social functioning. RESULTS: Participation was obtained from 96% (n = 124) of 129 eligible survivors and 61% (n = 262) of 427 potentially eligible controls. Consistently smaller proportions of survivors reported positive quality-of-life outcomes compared with controls, but these differences were generally small and nonsignificant statistically. When limited to @entity1 who remained free of disease over the entire follow-up period (n = 98), survivors' quality of life was similar to that among controls, with the exception of arm problems and sexual satisfaction for those @entity1 who lived with a partner. In contrast, survivors who developed recurrence or new primary @entity0 (n = 26) experienced a worse quality of life in all domains except social functioning. CONCLUSION: In most domains and for @entity1 without further disease events after diagnosis, quality of life does not seem to be permanently and globally impaired by @entity0 . Consequently, @entity0 survivors who remain free of disease probably do not need organized late psychosocial follow-up to improve quality of life. However, arm problems and sexuality are two areas in which additional effort may be still needed to improve quality of life of long-term survivors.

Long-term quality of life after XXXX : comparison of 8-year survivors with population controls.

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients', 'women'] @entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['cancer'] @entity0 :: ('MESH:D001943', 'Disease') :: ['breast cancer']
@entity0 :: (MESH:D001943,Disease) :: ['breast cancer']
