Background: The purpose of this study was to compare general health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of thyroid cancer survivors with a normative sample stratified by age at diagnosis (adolescents and young adults 18-35 years; middle-aged adults 36-64 years; elderly 65-84 years), and to compare general HR-QOL and disease-specific symptoms among adolescents and young adults, middle-aged adults, and elderly thyroid cancer survivors in an exploratory population-based cross-sectional study.
Methods: All patients diagnosed with thyroid cancer between 1990 and 2008, who were registered in the Eindhoven Cancer Registry, received a survey. Our final sample included 293 thyroid cancer survivors.
Results: Compared with a normative sample, adolescents and young adult thyroid cancer survivors showed statistically significant and clinically meaningfully worse physical, role, cognitive, and social functioning, and more fatigue and financial problems. Adolescents and young adult thyroid cancer survivors scored statistically significant and clinically meaningfully better on physical functioning and interest in sex compared with the elderly and had less sympathetic and throat/mouth problems compared with middle-aged adults.
Conclusion: Thyroid cancer seems to have a greater impact on younger than older thyroid cancer survivors and the lower HR-QOL in older compared to younger thyroid cancer survivors is probably caused mostly by their age and not the cancer.
Keywords: adolescents and young adults; disease-specific symptoms; health-related quality of life; survivorship; thyroid cancer.
© 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.