Evaluation of Outcomes of Breast Cancer with a Special Focus on Economic Impact and Quality of Life - a Pilot Study

Objectives: A pilot study is conducted to evaluate the outcomes of pharmacological management of breast cancer in a hospital setting. Method: Patient interviews were held to study the economic out come and standardized tool EORTC QLQ C 30 and its breast specific module EORTC QLQ BR 23 was utilized to measure the quality of life. Fifty two subjects diagnosed at different stages of the disease were studied. Results: The respondent's age ranged between 28-67 years, mean age 47.05(SD=9.33). The educational status varied from illiterate to university, the illiterate (28.84%), primary education (25.0%), class 5-10 (36.53%), intermediate undergraduate (7.69%), and post graduate studies (1.92%). Most of the participants (84.6%) were married and cohabiting with their spouses and few (15.38%) were widowed. The TNM staging of breast cancer was observed as first stage (none), stage II (42.3%), stage III (40.4%), and stage IV (15.4%), stage unknown (1.9%). All patients were treated with a multimodality approach for management. The cost analysis revealed that there are significant, differences among different modalities of treatments (Rs.1.01 lakh, Rs.1.17 lakh, Rs.1.53 lakh). The average direct cost of treatment for group I (4cycles of AC chemo, Rs.1.01 lakh), and group II (6 cycles of chemo Rs.1.17 lakh) and group III (8 cycles of chemo Rs.1.53 lakh).The quality of life study revealed that there are differences in the functional scales as well as symptoms scales among the patients treated with different treatment regimens. Discussions and Implications: Breast cancer is a very commonly diagnosed cancer among women all over the world .Early diagnosis and timely treatment can prolong the disease free survival of such patients with an improved quality of life. This research revealed different approaches of treatment for breast cancer management, in a private hospital setting in south India and the cost involved in three approaches, and their quality of life .The follow up after one year showed that most of them are leading a disease free life with better quality of life.