Faculty Presentations Faculty Presentations: Mei Bai

Quality of life outcomes in people newly diagnosed with advanced cancer: a case for individual differences.

Full list of poster authors

• Mei Bai, PhD, RN
• David Cella

Conference where poster was previously displayed

ISOQOL 30th Annual Conference. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. October 2023.

Poster abstract

Aims

Cancer diagnosis represents a life crisis. Nonetheless, it remains unclear to what extent cancer impacts the individual lives. The purpose of this study was to examine the changes of quality of life (QOL) outcomes in response to a newly diagnosed advanced cancer at the group and the individual levels.

Methods

This is a secondary data analysis of a pilot clinical trial (NCT 05235750) to improve QOL outcomes for patients newly diagnosed with advanced cancer using time series design. The sample reported here comprises 34 patients newly diagnosed with stage III or IV cancer undergoing anti-cancer and/or palliative treatments. Outcomes include QOL, self-esteem, anxiety and depressive symptoms, and spiritual well-being, which were assessed at the overall and individual levels for the raw score change, effect size (ES) as well as the percentage of individuals experiencing clinically meaningful changes. We limited our sample to the participants who have complete baseline and follow-up data at 2-, and 6 weeks post-baseline by the time this abstract was completed.

Results

Overall, this homogenous group of patients newly diagnosed with advanced cancer maintained QOL, self-esteem, and spiritual well-being comparable to cancer and U.S. population reference values, with minimal anxious or depressive symptoms. Nonetheless, prominent individual variability was observed at both entry level and follow-ups when broken down, and the difference often reached clinical significance (Tables 1-3). Individuals with lower emotional well-being (EWB) at study entry, as measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) showed more spontaneous improvement from baseline to two weeks post-baseline in comparison to those with higher EWB, and also showed more remarkable improvements from the intervention at six weeks post-baseline.

Conclusions

These preliminary findings suggest that people newly diagnosed with advanced cancer represent a heterogeneous population in terms of adjustment and adaptation, which cannot be easily explained by demographic or clinical variables alone. Our results underscore the salience of the individual difference in response to the diagnosis and treatment of advanced cancer as well as psychological interventions, which is otherwise hidden if examined based upon averages.