Health-related quality of life of young women with breast cancer. Review of the literature

Purpose: The purpose of the present article was to investigate the health related quality of life (QoL) of young women with breast cancer. Methods: For the purposes of this article, we reviewed the literature via the electronic databases Pubmed, Scopus and Google Scholar. Key words used were breast cancer, young women, health related quality of life, and quality of life. Results: Young women reported fatigue, pain in the breast and hand problems with lymphedema as the most frequent physical effects of treatment. Other physical problems were the not periodic and painful menses, vaginal dryness and loss of libido. Many young women had depressive symptoms such as depressed mood, helplessness, hopelessness, sleep loss, psychomotor retardation and disorders of appetite. There were often concerns about the health monitoring and self-image, while they were anxious if they will have a baby in the future or if they can nurture the existing ones. Many problems arose in the career of young women. They faced discrimination in the labor supply and/or layoff because they were considered unable to do their job effectively. In addition, they reported isolation problems and feeling different from other women of similar age. Conclusions: Young women consider that their health-related QoL is worse compared with older women. Young women worry about their future, with particular reference to their role as mothers and especially to children-bearing. The free screening and non-exclusion of young women is particularly important for breast cancer prevention and women's well-being.