Table 3.
Breast cancer patients’ mean EQ-VAS/utility scores by stage of treatment
| EQ-VAS scores | Utility scores | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| n | mean (SD) | p-value** | n | mean (SD) | p-value** | |
| Patients’ stage of treatment* | ||||||
| Lumpectomy | 2 | 90.5 (0.7) | NS | 2 | 0.88 (0.08) | NS |
| Mastectomy | 10 | 54.0 (29.4) | 10 | 0.68 (0.30) | ||
| Breast reconstruction surgery | 1 | 80.0 (0.0) | 1 | 0.92 (0.00) | ||
| Chemotherapy | 51 | 61.8 (19.2) | 51 | 0.71 (0.24) | ||
| Targeted (biological) therapy | 14 | 69.6 (15.6) | 14 | 0.80 (0.13) | ||
| Radiotherapy | 24 | 70.1 (21.7) | 24 | 0.77 (0.20) | ||
| Total | 102 | 64.8 (20.4) | 102 | 0.74 (0.22) | ||
NS not significant, SD standard deviation
*Patients’ stage of treatment was defined based on the current (if patients were undergoing a treatment) or most recent (if patients had just finished one treatment therapy and were waiting for the next one) use of health services related to breast cancer treatment. This was excluded newly diagnosed patients who had not yet received any treatment
**Difference among stage of treatment groups was analysed with the Kruskal–Wallis tests