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@ARTICLE{Fabian:304583,
author = {A. Fabian and A. Rühle and G. Liegl and J. Domschikowski
and M. Trommer and S. Ferdinandus and J.-N. Becker and G.
Wurschi and S. Boeke and M. Sonnhoff and C. Grott and L.
Käsmann$^*$ and M. Schneider and S. Freitag-Wolf and N. H.
Nicolay and D. Krug and S. Nolte},
title = {{Q}uality of life in cancer patients at the end of
radiotherapy compared to a general population sample in
{G}ermany.},
journal = {International journal of cancer},
volume = {nn},
issn = {0020-7136},
address = {Bognor Regis},
publisher = {Wiley-Liss},
reportid = {DKFZ-2025-01906},
pages = {nn},
year = {2025},
note = {epub},
abstract = {Germany has one of the highest cancer incidence rates in
Europe. Radiotherapy is essential for patients with cancer
as $50\%$ have an evidence-based indication for
radiotherapy. However, it is unknown how health-related
quality of life (HRQoL) of cancer patients undergoing
radiotherapy compares to the general population in Germany.
Therefore, we conducted a secondary analysis by pooling
cross-sectional individual-level data from a multicenter
cohort of cancer patients (n = 1052) undergoing radiotherapy
across Germany and a normative sample from the German
general population (n = 1006). We used the EORTC QLQ-C30 to
measure global HRQoL (range: 0-100). Higher scores indicate
higher HRQoL. We used ANOVA for univariable and ANCOVA with
predefined covariates for multivariable analyses. As per
univariable analysis, cancer patients had significantly
lower global HRQoL compared with the general population
(mean [M] = 54.6 vs. M = 65.9; p < .001). This difference
was smaller but persisted in the multivariable analysis (M =
56.5 vs. M = 63.5; p < .001). Multivariable analyses
stratified by education showed that HRQoL was only lower in
cancer patients with medium (M = 56.2 vs. M = 63.0; p <
.001) or high education (M = 57.0 vs. M = 66.5; p < .001)
compared with the general population. The minimal important
difference threshold of seven points was only met in the
group with high education. In conclusion, there may be a
meaningful gap in HRQoL of cancer patients at the end of
radiotherapy compared with the general population, mainly in
patients with higher educational levels. Upon validation,
this would highlight the need for supportive care and
optimized radiotherapy strategies to eventually close the
HRQoL gap.},
keywords = {general population (Other) / neoplasms (Other) / quality of
life (Other) / radiotherapy (Other)},
cin = {MU01},
ddc = {610},
cid = {I:(DE-He78)MU01-20160331},
pnm = {899 - ohne Topic (POF4-899)},
pid = {G:(DE-HGF)POF4-899},
typ = {PUB:(DE-HGF)16},
pubmed = {pmid:40938250},
doi = {10.1002/ijc.70152},
url = {https://inrepo02.dkfz.de/record/304583},
}