Patriciu ACHIMAS-CADARIU*1,2, Alexandru IRIMIE1,2, Mihaela
IANCU1, Florina POP2, Ioan LANCRAJAN2, Cosmin LISENCU2
1University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Iuliu Hatieganu”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
2Institute of Oncology “Prof. Dr. Ion Chiricuta”, Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Abstract
The effects of cancer and its treatment on reproduction and fertility are well-documented, yet knowledge of the psychosocial and behavioral implications of these outcomes for young adult survivors of cancer is limited. The present study aimed to investigate the associations among quality of life determinants on a sample of female patients of reproductive age (102 patients and 102 healthy controls), surgically treated (conisation) for pre-invasive and invasive pathology (cervix dysplasia and microinvasive carcinoma). Our goal was to obtain a structural model, based on previously validated measures, though confirmatory factor analysis. We chose three scales that have been validated on other populations and assessed their construct validity in case of the specific population we were interested in. The mean age of the patients included in the study was 31.8 years, while the mean age of the control group was 32.31 years. Of the 102 patients, 7% reported post-surgery complications, 40% used contraceptive methods, 25% wanted to become pregnant and 17 patients managed to get pregnant, 13 of which managed to deliver liveborns. The FSFI model presented in this paper can be used for assessing four domains of women’s sexual functioning and women’s overall sexual functioning. The quality of life model based on the EORTC OLQ-C30 allows the assessment of functioning at physical, emotional, and social levels, and defining specific symptoms scales for the target population.
Keywords: quality of life, premalignant and malignant pathology, childbearing age and pregnancy, psycho-oncology
