Correlation between Overall Survival and Quality of Life in Colon Cancer Patients with Chemotherapy: A Comparison between Inoperability at the First Onset and at the Time of Relapse

Patients presenting with inoperable colon cancer at first onset (ICF) or at time of relapse (ICR) are considered incurable. The therapeutic goal for incurable cancer is prolongation of overall survival (OS) and maintenance of a high quality of life (QOL). As data on objective indicators of QOL in cancer patients, such as length of hospitalization (LOH), outpatient consultation times (OCT), and hospital-free survival (HFS), is limited, this study compared ICF and ICR with respect to OS and QOL over the entire clinical course. We retrospectively evaluated 90 inoperable colon cancer patients with chemotherapy and compared ICF and ICR in terms of OS, LOH, OCT, and HFS.