DOI: 10.36347/sjams.2016.v04i02.040

Pages: 520-525

Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer among the women and may cause changes in the life quality of the women as well as their family members. The present cross sectional (descriptive-analytical) study was conducted on 100 women with breast cancer referring to the hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran in order to investigate their quality of life. The study data were gathered using information registration forms as well as QOL-BC questionnaire through interviews. In results According to the study results, most breast cancer women (66%) had average life quality. Regarding the dimensions of quality of life, 69%, 62%, and 73% of the patients had average physical health, psychological status, and social status, respectively. In addition, 86% of the women had strong religious beliefs. The results revealed a significant relationship between the quality of life and chemotherapy (P=0.001), axillary lymph node dissection (P=0.05), and number of chemotherapy cycles (P=0.026) .However, no significant relationship was found between the quality of life and other demographic and disease variables, such as age and number of radiotherapies. Moreover, a significant relationship was observed between the psychological dimension of quality of life and the number of chemotherapy cycles (P=0.026) as well as economic status (P=0.035). In conclusion In spite of the existing treatments, little improvement has been observed in the survival rate of breast cancer patients. Therefore, identifying and eliminating such patients’ psycho-social problems are of great importance in taking steps toward treatment of these patients.