Chen et al evaluated patients who were treated for cutaneous basal cell or squamous cell carcinomas. They identified pre-treatment variables which affect the post-treatment quality of life for these patients. The authors are from the University of California San Francisco and the San Francisco Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
Pre-treatment factors affecting post-treatment quality of life:
(1) pretreatment skin-related quality of life (using the Skindex-16)
(2) pretreatment comorbidity (using the Charlson comorbidity index)
(3) pretreatment mental health status
Some patients with a cutaneous basal cell or squamous cell carcinoma have a single small lesion that is simply excised and which should have a minimal impact on the patient. Other patients have extensive actinic damage, and for these the skin-related quality of life can be markedly impaired (in theory this should be captured in the pretreatment skin-related QOL).
Interpretation:
• The better the pretreatment factors the better the post-treatment quality of life.
• A patient with significant problems before the treatment will have significant problems afterwards.
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