Factors Influencing Quality of Life after Curative Resection for Patients with Gastric Cancer

Koichiro Kumai, Atsushi Shimada, Yoshiro Saikawa, Ichiro Uyama, Tetsuro Kubota, Keiichi Yoshino, Kyuya Ishibiki, Masaki Kitajima

Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University

A good quality of life (QOL) after curative resection for patients with gastric cancer is important, but no method of evaluation has been established. One hundred twenty-one outpatients who had undergone curative resection of stomach cancer were assessed by interview concerning factors influencing QOL. Only 14% of the patients were informed that they had cancer. During the first year after gastrectomy, surgery itself was the influencing factor. Factors influencing QOL were quality changes in diet, abnormal bowel movements and complaints during or after treatment. In the second investigation of 80 patients, changes in dietary content, such as intolerance of fatty foods, meat or milk, were significant. There was no significant difference between R₂ standard lymph node dissection and R₁ reduction of surgery in terms of the patient's evaluation.

Key words
gastric cancer, quality of life after gastrectomy, factors influencing quality of life

Reprint requests
Koichiro Kumai Department of Surgery, School of Medicine, Keio University
35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 160 JAPAN

Accepted
July 6, 1992

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