Factors associated with quality of life in advanced breast cancer during palliative chemotherapy
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36517/2175-6783.20262796402Keywords:
Quality of Life; Breast Neoplasms; Neoplasm Metastasis; Oncology Nursing.Abstract
Objective: to investigate sociodemographic and clinical factors associated with quality of life in women with advanced breast cancer beginning palliative chemotherapy. Methods: this observational, cross-sectional, and analytical study evaluated women with advanced breast cancer starting palliative chemotherapy at an oncology outpatient clinic. We administered sociodemographic and clinical questionnaires, alongside the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General. Analyses included descriptive statistics, Student’s t-test, ANOVA, and Pearson correlation, using bootstrapping (2,000 resamples) for effect size at a significance level of p≤0.05. Results: the study included 123 women with a mean age of 53.25 years. The overall quality of life score was 55.28. Overall quality of life differed significantly based on the number of children (p=0.008) and receipt of government financial assistance (p=0.003). Conclusion: clinical and sociodemographic factors, including chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and having children, correlated with poorer quality of life in women with advanced breast cancer. Contributions to practice: these findings underscore the need for continuous, comprehensive monitoring of quality of life and the external factors affecting this outcome in women with advanced breast cancer.
Downloads
References
1. Bray F, Laversanne M, Sung H, Ferlay J, Siegel RL, Soerjomataram I, et al. Global cancer statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin. 2024;74(3):229-63. doi: https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21834
2. Instituto Nacional de Câncer. Controle do câncer de mama no Brasil: dados e números 2025 [Internet]. 2025 [cited Oct 15, 2025]. Available from: http://ninho.inca.gov.br/jspui/handle/123456789/17733
3. Sidharthan C. Breast cancer cases and deaths set to surge by 2050—are we prepared? News Medical [Internet]. 2025 [cited Oct 15, 2025]. Available from: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20250225/Breast-cancer-cases-and-deaths-set-to-surge-by-2050e28094are-we-prepared.aspx
4. Riggio AI, Varley KE, Welm AL. The lingering mysteries of metastatic recurrence in breast cancer. Br J Cancer 2021;124(1):13-26. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-020-01161-4
5. American Cancer Society. Cancer facts & figures [Internet]. 2023 [cited Oct 15, 2025]. Available from: http://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2023/2023-cancer-facts-and-figures.pdf
6. Instituto Nacional de Câncer. Controle do câncer de mama no Brasil: dados e números [Internet]. 2024 [cited Oct 15, 2025]. Available from: https://www.inca.gov.br/publicacoes/livros/controle-do-cancer-de-mama-no-brasil-dados-e-numeros-2024
7. Dourado CARO, Santos CMF, Santana VM, Gomes TN, Cavalcante LTS, Lima MCL. Breast cancer and analysis of the factors related to the disease detection and staging methods. Cogitare Enferm. 2022;27:e81039. doi: https://doi.org/10.5380/ce.v27i0.81039
8. Hasanah U, Ahmad M, Prihantono P, Usman AN, Aryyad A, Agustin DI. The quality of life assessment of breast cancer patients. Breast Dis. 2024;43(1):173-85. doi: http://doi.org/10.3233/BD-249008
9. Cardoso F, Rihani J, Harmer V, Harbeck N, Casas A, Rugo HS, et al. Quality of life and treatment-related side effects in patients with HR+/HER2− advanced breast cancer: findings from a multicountry survey. Oncologist. 2023;28(10):856-65. doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/oncolo/oyad207
10. Costa MSO, Diniz JR, Vasconcelos EMR, Albuquerque KA, Santos CR, Araújo EC. Fatores que influenciam na qualidade de vida e no autocuidado de mulheres com câncer de mama. Rev Recien. 2023;13(41):412-22. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.24276/rrecien2023.13.41.412-422
11. Santos TB, Borges AKM, Ferreira JD, Meira KC, Souza MC, Guimarães RM, et al. Prevalence and factors associated to advanced stage breast cancer diagnosis. Ciênc Saúde Coletiva. 2022;27(2):471-82. doi: https://doi.org/10.1590/1413-81232022272.36462020
12. Silva LAA, Machado CAM, Santana EO, Silva MN, Felix JVC, Sawada NO, et al. Guided imagery relaxation in quality of life of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a quasi-experiment. Asian Pac J Cancer Prev. 2021;22(8):2453-60. doi: https://doi.org/10.31557/APJCP.2021.22.8.2453
13. Santana EO, Silva LS, Silva LAA, Lemos JLA, Marcondes L, Guimarães PRB, et al. Effect of guided imagery relaxation on anxiety in cervical cancer: randomized clinical trial. Rev Bras Enferm. 2023;76(5):e20210874. doi: https://doi.org/10.1590/0034-7167-2021-0874
14. Campos JADB, Spexoto MCB, Serrano SV, Maroco J. Psychometric characteristics of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General when applied to Brazilian cancer patients: a cross-cultural adaptation and validation. Health Qual Life Outcomes. 2016;14(1):8. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12955-015-0400-8
15. Lakens D. Calculating and reporting effect sizes to facilitate cumulative science: a practical primer for t-tests and ANOVAs. Front Psychol. 2013;4:863. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00863
16. Serdar CC, Cihan M, Yücel D, Serdar MA. Sample size, power and effect size revisited: simplified and practical approaches in pre-clinical, clinical and laboratory studies. Biochem Med (Zagreb). 2021;31(1):010502. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.11613/BM.2021.010502
17. Field A. Descobrindo a estatística usando o SPSS. São Paulo: Penso; 2021.
18. Cardoso MCM, Araújo RS, Silva JP, Brandão RNM, Carneiro SR. Assessment of upper limbs functionality, quality of life and postoperative fatigue in women with breast cancer at a reference hospital in the Amazon Region. Rev Bras Cancerol. 2025;71(4):e–055271. doi: http://doi.org/10.32635/2176-9745.RBC.2025v71n4.5271
19. Santos RLB, Osorio-de-Castro CGS, Sobreira-da-Silva MJ, Pepe VLE. First use of antineoplastic agents in women with breast cancer in the state of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Front Pharmacol. 2023;14:1069505. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2023.1069505
20. Machado RHI, Souza JR. Pacientes mulheres com câncer de mama metastático: impacto do diagnóstico e estratégias de enfrentamento. Brasília Med. 2022;59:1-23. doi: http://doi.org/10.5935/2236-5117.2022v59a246
21. Shamieh O, Alarjeh G, Li H, Naser MA, Farsakh FA, Abdel-Razeq R, et al. Care needs and symptoms burden of breast cancer patients in Jordan: a cross-sectional study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2022;19(17):10787. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph191710787
22. Brandstetter LS, Grau A, Heuschmann PU, Müller-Reiter M, Salmen J, Störk S, et al. Medication patterns and potentially inappropriate medication in patients with metastatic breast cancer: results of the BRE-BY-MED study. BMC Cancer. 2025;25(1):125. doi: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12885-025-13548-8
23. Harbeck N, Fasching PA, Wuerstlein R, Degenhardt T, Lüftner D, Kates RE, et al. Significantly longer time to deterioration of quality of life due to CANKADO PRO-React eHealth support in HR+ HER2- metastatic breast cancer patients receiving palbociclib and endocrine therapy: primary outcome analysis of the multicenter randomized AGO-B WSG PreCycle trial. Ann Oncol. 2023;34(8):660-9. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2023.05.003
24. Viana LRC, Ferreira GRS, Silva CRR, Freitas SA, Frazão MCLO, Costa TF, et al. Quality of life and sociodemographic and clinical profile of breast and prostate cancer patients. Rev Rene. 2023;24:e89231. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.15253/2175-6783.20232489231
25. Campos AAL, Bustamante-Teixeira MT, Ervilha RR, Fayer VA, Cintra JRD, Freitas RM, et al. Quality of life of women who underwent breast cancer treatment relative to sociodemographic, behavioral, and clinical factors. Einstein (São Paulo). 2024;22:eAO0585. doi: http://doi.org/10.31744/einstein_journal/2024AO0585
26. Oliveira DAL, Silva LBF, Alves SKM, Guerra MCGC, Ramos VP. Social network support for women with breast cancer undergoing chemotherapy. Rev Enferm Digit Cuid Prom Saúde. 2023;8:01-08. doi: https://doi.org/10.5935/2446-5682.20230186
27. Prado E, Sales CA, Girardon-Perlini NMO, Matsuda LM, Benedetti GMS, Marcon SS. Experience of people with advanced cancer faced with the impossibility of cure: a phenomenological analysis. Esc Anna Nery. 2020;24(2):e20190113. doi: https://doi.org/10.1590/2177-9465-EAN-2019-0113
28. Surbhi, Gupta H, Brar GK, Jalota V. Quality of life and its sociodemographic determinants in breast cancer patients. Ind Psychiatry J. 2022;31(2):313-7. doi: https://doi.org/10.4103/ipj.ipj_6_21
Downloads
Published
Data Availability Statement
The datasets supporting these results are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 Larissa Marcondes, Eleandro do Prado, Maria Eduarda Leal Baltazar, Maria Eduarda dos Santos, Nicollas Ferraz Sudario da Silva, Luciana de Alcantara Nogueira, Luciana Puchalski Kalinke
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
