Department of Surgery, Institute of Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Scandinavian Surgical Outcomes Research Group (SSORG), Sahlgrenska University Hospital/Östra, 416 85, Gothenburg, Sweden. dan.asplund@vgregion.se.
Quality of life may predict survival. In addition to clinical variables, it may be influenced by psychological factors, some of which may be accessible for intervention. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the association of intrusive thoughts and the patients' sense of coherence with pretreatment quality of life in patients with newly diagnosed rectal cancer.
Patients were prospectively included in 16 hospitals in Sweden and Denmark. They answered an extensive questionnaire after receiving their treatment plan. Clinical data were retrieved from national quality registries for rectal cancer.
Of 1248 included patients, a total of 1085 were evaluable. Pretreatment global health-related and overall quality of life was lower in patients planned for palliative compared with curative treatment (median 53 vs. 80 on the EuroQoL visual analogue scale, p