Quality of life during chemotherapy: Implications for social and legal medicine

The impact of chemotherapy (CHT) on the Quality of Life (QoL) of cancer patients has been a topic of much concern in the relevant literature. In Italy, administrative legislation provides economic benefits for cases in which Italian citizens have been rendered incapable of performing their everyday activities. The present study is designed to assess the degree to which CHT affects the QoL of cancer patients by taking into account variables, such as age, gender or type of cancer, or whether assessment of QoL was performed either during or after chemotherapy, during active progressive disease, stable disease or disease response. The sample consisted of sixty-three patients receiving CHT (20/63 males and 43/63 females; age 18-87) whereas the control group consisted of fifty-eight cancer patients who did not receive CHT (36/58 males and 22/58 females; age 30-85). Odds ratios quantified the presence/absence of CHT with the presence/absence of activities of daily living (ADLs) in the cancer group populations. A statistically significant correlation was found between CHT and incapacity to perform ADLs (OR 5.28; CI 95%: 2.28-12.26; p <0.001), independent of age, gender or type of cancer.