Improvement in patient - reported outcomes after group poetry therapy of women with breast cancer

One of the best way of achieving the patient’s views and expectations about the effect of a therapeutic or palliative intervention on his/her quality of life is using of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). In this study we used European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC-QLQ-C30) to evaluate the effectiveness of group poetry therapy on quality of life measures of women with breast cancer.
This quasi-experimental before-after study was conducted in 2016 on 30 women with breast cancer, undergoing chemotherapy at a referral center at the north of Iran. The study protocol included eight weekly sessions of group poetry therapy using poems from great Persian poets. The questionnaire was completed by the patients before beginning group poetry therapy and again one week and two months after the sessions had ended. Items of the questionnaire were manually scored and then analyzed with appropriate statistical examination such as student t test.
A total of 28 patients participated in all the group poetry therapy sessions and completed the questionnaire. The changes of quality of life score from 51.8 to 65.5 (P=0.013) and 69 (P=0.005) and functional score from 65.6 to 71.4 (P=0.002) and 77.2 (P=0.002) were significant in both one week and two months follow up. Also symptom score change from 34.5 to 23.7 in two months follow up was important (P=0.013).
This study showed that based on the reports of patients with breast cancer, their quality of life had tangible improvements two months after group poetry and this positive psychotherapy in addition to reducing patient's physical complaints, improved their performance, too.