A study of quality of life after surgery for cancer of the food pipe or stomach

Cancer type:

Oesophageal cancer

Stomach cancer

Status:

Results

Phase:

Other

This study was for people having surgery to remove cancer of their food pipe (oesophagus) or stomach.

More about this trial

Doctors often treat oesophageal cancer and stomach cancer by removing it with surgery. There are 2 different types of surgery people might have. They are a:

trans hiatal oesophagectomy which means having the operation through a cut in the abdomen (tummy) and neck
trans thoracic oesophagectomy, which is when the surgeon makes cuts in the abdomen and chest

As with all treatments, surgery can affect quality of life afterwards. But researchers weren’t sure how the 2 different types of surgery affected quality of life Open a glossary item

and how long recovery takes. So they wanted to find out more.

In this study, researchers asked people to fill in questionnaires before having surgery and at 6 and 12 months after surgery.

Summary of results

The study team found people who had a trans hiatal oesophagectomy seemed to have a better quality of life after surgery.

146 people who had their surgery at Guy’s and St Thomas’s Hospital, London took part.

86 had the operation through a cut in their abdomen (tummy) and neck (a trans hiatal oesophagectomy).
60 had the surgery through cuts in their abdomen and chest (trans thoracic oesophagectomy).

Everyone completed some questionnaires before and after surgery. These asked about different areas of health and general wellbeing. Such as:

how much physical activity they could do
how they were feeling emotionally
how surgery affected their daily activities and social role
if they had any symptoms

The researchers checked the number of people who completed the questionnaires after surgery. This was:

111 at 6 months
76 at 12 months

At 6 months, the researchers found that people who had a trans thoracic operation weren’t doing as well in their daily life as those who had a trans hiatal operation.

This was 23 people (56%) who had a trans thoracic operation compared with 19 people (27%) who had a trans hiatal operation.

At 12 months, they found that people who had a trans thoracic operation had more problems with:

feeling and being sick
shortness of breath
constipation

In those who had trans thoracic surgery:

just over 2 out of 10 people (23%) felt sick or had vomiting
just under 3 out of 10 people (27%) had shortness of breath
just over 3 out 10 people (31%) had constipation

In those who had trans hiatal surgery:

1 in every 10 people (10%) felt sick or had vomiting
a very small number of people (4%) had shortness of breath
a very small number of people (8%) had constipation

The researchers say the results suggest that people who had a trans hiatal oesophagectomy seemed to have a better quality of life at 6 and 12 months after surgery. They would like to do a similar study in a larger group of people. But there isn’t one planned at the moment.

We have based this summary on information from the research team. The information they sent us has been reviewed by independent specialists (peer reviewed Open a glossary item

) and published in a medical journal. The figures we quote above were provided by the trial team who did the research. We have not analysed the data ourselves.