. 2011 Jan 14;17(2):144–150. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v17.i2.144

Table 3.

Quality of life results after self-expanding metal stents placement for malignant dysphagia

Ref.	Yr	Study type	Investigation	Type of questionnaire	Results
Dallal et al[52]	2001	Randomized trial	Endoscopic thermal ablation vs SEMS in patients with inoperable EC	EORTC QLQ-30	HRQoL deteriorated in the stent group but not in the group treated with thermal ablation
		Randomized trial		EORTC OES-24
				SF-36
				HAD scale
Siersema et al[53]	2001	Prospective, randomized study	comparison between Ultraflex stent, Flamingo Wallstent, and Gianturco-Z stent in 100 consecutive patients with dysphagia caused by EC or carcinoma of the gastric cardia	WHO performance status	Mean WHO performance status before and at 4 wk after stent placement was not different among the 3 patient groups
		Prospective, randomized study		Dysphagia score
O'Donnell et al[48]	2002	Randomized clinical trial	SEMS vs plastic endoprostheses	EORTC QLQ-30	QoL in patients with SEMS was better than in plastic stents (no statistical significance)
		Randomized clinical trial	SEMS vs plastic endoprostheses	EORTC OES-24
Homs et al[51]	2004	Randomized trial	Stent placement vs single dose brachytherapy for the palliation of EC	EORTC OES-23	Treatment with single dose brachytherapy gave better overall scores on HRQoL scales compared with stent placement for the palliation of EC
				Visual analogue pain scale
				EORTC QLQ-C30
				Euroqol EQ-5D
				EQ-VAS
Shenfine et al[49]	2005	Randomized controlled trial	Cost-effectiveness of palliative therapies for patients with inoperable EC	Spitzer QoL index	Mean QoL index for the SEMS group at 6 wk was significantly lower than the QoL index at baseline for the same group
				Karnowsky performance scale
				Euroqol EQ-5D
				EORTC QLQ-30
Bergquist et al[50]	2005	Randomized controlled clinical trial	Endoluminal brachytherapy vs endoscopic stent placement in patients with advanced EC or gastroesophageal junction cancer	EORTC OES-23	Insertion of SEMS offered a more instant relief of dysphagia compared to endoluminal brachytherapy, but HRQoL was more stable in brachytherapy treatment
		Randomized controlled clinical trial		EORTC QLQ-30
Madhusudhan et al[54]	2009	Prospective study	QoL after palliative stenting in patients with inoperable EC	EORTC QLQ-C30	Palliative stenting using SEMS resulted in significant improvement in all scales of QoL
		Prospective study		EORTC QLQ-OES 18

QoL: Quality of life; HRQoL: Health-related quality of life; EC: Esophageal cancer; SEMS: Self-expanding metal stents.