Quality of Life and Anxiety of Adolescents With Cancer and Their Parents: Neurodevelopmental Implications in Adolescence

Abstract

Background: Cancer is one of the most lethal chronic diseases, which has been the reason for the majority of losses of lives globally. Adolescents with cancer experience a lower quality of life compared to both their healthy peers and adult patients. Methods: In the present study, 237 adolescents and 460 parents were evaluated with measures of quality of life and anxiety. Results: All patients showed lower performance on QoL and increased performance on anxiety measures. Regarding parents' QoL, although parents of all groups had low performance on all measures, parents of adolescents with leukaemia experience poor quality of life and increased levels of anxiety. Conclusion: Adolescents and young adults with cancer are going through a turbulent period of their lives, not only due to their diagnosis and treatment process but also due to the physical and psychosocial changes and neurodevelopmental consequences of paediatric cancer and its treatment in adolescence.