Background : Quality of life (QoL) is arguably as important as the survival rate in patients with hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, very few studies have evaluated the factors that determine good or poor QoL in patients with HCC.Objectives:To correlate baseline QoL (EORTC-QLQC30) with baseline laboratory and clinical parameters among HCC patients.Patients and Method: Thirty nine consecutive newly-diagnosed HCC patients were recruited, Spearman;s rank correlation was used to correlate the QoL scores, which consisted of 15 domians, wirg continous baseline variables while the Mann-Whitney U or kruskal Wallis tests were used for categorial variables.Results: The mean age of the cohort was 61.3 +- 14.5, majority of whom were male(89.7). Majority had childs Pugh Turcott (CPT) score af A (61.5%) and barcelona Clinic Liver cancer (BCLC) stage A-B (76.9%). A third (33.3%) knew of their diagnosis at the time of QoL between the 2 groups (p>0.05). There was no consistent pattern in the correlation between laboratory parameters with QoL, with some running contrary to conventional reasoning (Higher international normalized ratio correlation with better role function[p=0.02] and less pain [0.035]; CPT score A associated with lower global health status compared to CPT B/C [p=0.028]). On the other hand, BCLC staging was a more sensible relection of QoL with BCLC A/B patients having higher physical (p=0.014) and social (p=0.049) function, and lower symptom scores for nausses/vomiting (p=0.041) and dyspnea (p=0.004) than patients with BCLC C/D.Conclusion: baseline EORTC-QLC-C30 of patients with HCC has no consistent correlation with the severity of liver dysfunction. Correlation of some domains of the EORTC-QLQ-C30 with BCLC staging suggests that umor burden is the main determinant of QoL in HCC patients. Further studies are needed to determine whether baseline QoL predicts survival independent of HCC staging.
Hepatocellular Carcinoma