Background:

The cervix is a tubular structure that serves as the conduit between the endometrial cavity and the vagina. The superior portion is continuous with the uterus.[1] Cancer of the cervix (cervical cancer) happens when normal cells in the cervix change into abnormal cells and grow out of control and the evidence linking HPV to cervical cancer is extensive. According to WHO cervical cancer is the fourth most common cancer among females globally, with approximately 660,000 cases of invasive cervical carcinoma diagnosed and 350,000 cervical cancer deaths annually in 2022. The burden of cervical cancer is disproportionately high in developing countries, which accounts for 85% of cases worldwide and nearly 90% of cervical deaths.[2] Advances in diagnosis and treatment of cervical cancer have offered some survival benefits and have increased the life expectancy of cancer survivors, and thus addressing the quality of life (QOL) is paramount. The treatment for cervical cancer is largely depends on its staging, as for those with earlier stages benefits from surgery and those with late stage of the disease are offered with concurrent chemoradiotherapy. And however, a standard treatment care of CCRT it also poses side effects like nausea and vomiting, pelvic pain, vaginal stenosis, chronic bladder and bowel dysfunction and infertility. This led to encourage patients to have clinical follow-up after treatment every 3 months post treatment.[3]

Due to these side effects of treatment for cervical cancer, understanding the quality of life among cervical cancer patient undergone radiotherapy is imperative for comprehensive healthcare interventions. The study done in Ghana showed majority (56%) of participants had stable QoL after radiotherapy while 22% had each good and poor QoL.[4] Another study done in Kenyatta Hospital showed the overall quality of life data showed 69% of study participants had poor quality of life while 31% of study participants had good quality of life. Patients with early-stage disease (stage I and II) were 7.3 times (AOR = 7.3, 95% CI = 2.4 – 21.7, p = 0.000) more likely to have a good quality of life than patients with advanced-stage disease. Patients with no comorbidities were 3.1 times (COR = 3.1, 95% CI = 1.1 – 9.1, p = 0.037) more likely to have a good quality of life than patients with comorbidities.[5] They concluded that; the overall health-related quality of life among cervical cancer patients was poor in the study setting. And the study done in Ocean Road Hospital using 323 patients concluded that more than half (54.8%) had good overall QoL and it was affected.[6]

Due to scarcity of relative studies focusing on the QoL of these patients undergone radiotherapy treatment in Africa, Tanzania and in the region at large, so this study aims to address this gap.