Comparison of quality of life in patients with bone metastasis under treatment with single fraction and multiple fraction radiotherapy methods in Shiraz during 2012

Diagnosis and treatment of cancer could have a negative effect on patient's quality of life. One of the cancer treatment methods is radiotherapy which is done for destroying cancer cells. The aim of this study was to compare the quality of life in patients treated with 2 main methods of radiotherapy in Shiraz during 2012.

This was an analytical discretional study. One hundred patients with bone metastasis were included in this study. Data was collected by interview and questionnaire. The questionnaires used in this study were a demographic form and the specific questionnaire for calculating quality of life in patients with cancer named as QLQ-C30. For comparing the two groups first all of the confounding factors were determined and after that by using the propensity scoring method the two groups were matched and the effects of confounding groups were eliminated and at the end the results were analyzed.

The results of this study showed that although the quality of life of patients with multiple fraction treatment was more than single fraction method, these results were not significant. Similar results were found for other dimensions of quality of life.

While eliminating the effects of confounder variables the matching method used in this study, gives more accurate results. The results of this study confirm the findings of most of the related studies.