Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2023 Jun 14:4:1180383.
doi: 10.3389/fgwh.2023.1180383. eCollection 2023.

Health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients in low-and-middle-income countries in Asia: a systematic review

Nhi T N Ngo  1 , Ha Thi Nguyen  1 , Phuong Thi Lan Nguyen  1 , Truc Thuy Thanh Vo  1 , Toi Lam Phung  2 , Anh Gia Pham  3 , Thanh Van Vo  4   5 , Mai Thi Ngoc Dang  6 , Tien Nguyen Le Bao  5 , Khanh N C Duong  1   7
Affiliations
Review

Health-related quality of life in breast cancer patients in low-and-middle-income countries in Asia: a systematic review

Nhi T N Ngo et al. Front Glob Womens Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Breast cancer remains one of the major cancers worldwide. In Asia, breast cancer is leading both incidence and mortality rates. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) studies play an important role in clinical treatment. This systematic review aimed to summarize the evidence of HRQoL and associated factors among patients with breast cancer in low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs) in Asia.

Method: Performed according to PRISMA guidelines for systematic review, the studies were searched from three databases (PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus) up to November 2020. The studies which met the predefined eligibility criteria were selected, extracted, and assessed the quality according to the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) tool.

Results and discussion: A total of 2,620 studies were searched on the three databases, of which 28 met the selection criteria, then, were included in the systematic review. The Global Health Status (GHS) score of breast cancer patients based on the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire ranged from 56.32 ± 25.42 to 72.48 ± 15.68. The overall HRQoL scores using the FACT-G and FACT-B instruments ranged from 60.78 ± 13.27 to 82.23 ± 12.55 and from 70.29 ± 13.33 to 108.48 ± 19.82, respectively. Factors affecting HRQoL of patients with breast cancer included age, education level, income, marital status, lifestyle, tumor stage, method, and treatment duration. Patient's income showed a consistent effect on HRQoL while the remaining factors reported inconsistent findings across the studies. In conclusion, the HRQoL of breast cancer patients in LMICs in Asia was low and affected by several sociodemographic factors which should be studied more in future research.

Keywords: Asia; HRQoL; LMICs; QoL; breast cancer; systematic review.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The PRISMA flowchart of selection eligible studies.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. World Health Organization (WHO). Breast cancer. (2021). Available at: https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/breast-cancer#:∼:text=I... (Accessed May 13, 2021).
    1. International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). GLOBOCAN 2020. (2020). Available at: https://gco.iarc.fr/today/data/factsheets/populations/900-world-fact-she... (Accessed April 15, 2021).
    1. Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Laversanne M, Soerjomataram I, Jemal A, et al. Global cancer statistics 2020: gLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. (2021) 71:209–49. 10.3322/caac.21660 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Lim YX, Lim ZL, Ho PJ, Li J. Breast cancer in Asia: incidence, mortality, early detection. Mammography programs, and risk-based screening initiatives. Cancers. (2022) 14. 10.3390/cancers14174218 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Katanoda K, Hori M, Saito E, Shibata A, Ito Y, Minami T, et al. Updated trends in cancer in Japan: incidence in 1985–2015 and mortality in 1958–2018-A sign of decrease in cancer incidence. J Epidemiol. (2021) 31:426–50. 10.2188/jea.JE20200416 - DOI - PMC - PubMed