Quality of life in patients with advanced cancer

Abstract

Advances in cancer chemotherapy have brought about significant improvement in the overall survival expectation for many malignant diseases. However, most current clinical trials only evaluate the duration of survival, the response rate of the tumor to treatment, or simply report the obvious side effects. Quality of life study is an emerging science of particular relevance to clinical cancer. The development of valid and reliable quality of life assessment may influence the clinical trials process. Furthermore, it may be possible to compare the effects of alternative treatment on both the quality and duration of survival. Developing interest in the quality of life is reflected in the increasing number of references dealing with this problem. However, several points must be resolved before measurement of the quality of life of cancer patients can be used for these purposes, including the design of a method of measurement, evaluation of the method, etc. The selection of an appropriate scope of inquiry is also important. In this report, current views on the quality of life in patients with advanced cancer are briefly reviewed, and the attempts of our Tokyo Cancer Chemotherapy Cooperative Study Group are also introduced.