Efrosyni KYPRAIOU, Ioannis M. KOUKOURAKIS, Andromachi KOUGIOUMTZOPOULOU, Kalliopi PLATONI, Marina CHALKIA, Kyveli ZOURARI, Efstathios EFSTATHOPOULOS, Nikolaos KELEKIS, Anna ZYGOGIANNI, Vassilis KOULOULIAS
Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences - 2026;56(5):1365-1372
Background/aim: Quality of life (QoL) is an important parameter that should be taken into account when assessing treatment efficacy in cancer patients. The FAST-FORWARD radiotherapy (RT) regimen (5-day schedule) for early-stage breast cancer has been reported by both physicians and patients to be associated with toxicity comparable to that of longer schedules. However, the impact of the addition of a tumor bed boost to ultrahypofractionated RT on patient QoL has not been extensively reported to date. Materials and methods: QoL was assessed before and after RT and again 3 months later in 24 patients with early-stage breast cancer who underwent adjuvant ultrahypofractionated whole-breast RT (5 fractions of 5.2 Gy), followed by a tumor bed boost (3 fractions of 3 Gy). The EORTC QLQ-C30 and BR23 questionnaires were used to assess patient-reported outcomes (PROs). Patient religiosity and spirituality were evaluated using the QRFPC25 questionnaire. Results: There were no significant differences in either the functional or symptom scores across the designated time points. Although an increase in global health status at 3 months was observed, there was significant variability in patient scores across all time points (Kendall's W = 0.14; adjusted p-values for multiple comparisons >= 0.44). Breast symptom scores also increased over time, especially at 3 months (p = 0.032; chi2 = 6.87), but again this effect was small (Kendall's W = 0.14, adjusted p >= 0.12). Patient spirituality and religiosity were not affected. Conclusion: Overall, QoL, as well as patient spirituality and religiosity, remained stable over time in this FAST-FORWARD plus boost-treated cohort. Further investigation is required to validate these hypothesis-generating findings.
