Endocrine Abstracts

Background: Although the survival rate of papillary thyroid cancer is over 95%, the diagnosis of ’cancer’ and fear of recurrence may impair the quality of life of patients. There is no specific scale for patients with thyroid cancer, scales that can be used in the course of all chronic diseases and include the concept of general health are used to evaluate the quality of life in these patients. We aimed to evaluate the validity of the Thyroid Specific Quality of Life Scale, ThyPRO, which was developed for benign thyroid diseases, in patients with papillary thyroid cancer.

Material and Methods: 121 participants who applied to Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism between July 2019 and June 2021 and underwent total thyroidectomy for papillary thyroid cancer were included in this study. Patients with comorbidities were excluded from the study. In addition, the ThyPRO and SF-36 questionnaires were applied to all patients. Thyroid function tests of all patients were evaluated.

Results: A significant negative correlation was observed between the ThyPRO fatigue subscale and the SF-36 vitality subscale r=-0,546, P<0,001). When the ThyPRO anxiety, depression and emotional symptoms subscales were compared separately with the SF-36 mood subscale, significant negative correlations were found for each subscale (r=- 0,446, P<0,001; r=-0,403, P<0,001; r=-0,545, P<0,001). A significant negative correlation was observed between the ThyPRO social life subscale and the SF-36 social function subscale (r=-0,378, P<0,001). When the ThyPRO daily life subscale was compared with the SF-36 physical role and emotional role subscales, a significant negative correlation was observed (r=-0,413, P<0,001; r=-0,335, P<0,001). There was no significant correlation between the ThyPRO general quality of life assessment and SF-36 general health assessment (P=0,087).

Conclusions: Favorable outcomes have been observed that the ThyPRO scale can be used to evaluate the quality of life in patients followed up with papillary thyroid cancer. These findings need to be tested with a validity-reliability study in a larger patient population.