Quality of life measures in cancer chemotherapy: methodology and implications

Quality of life has been an implied outcome of medical care since ancient times, yet only recently have tools become available to measure quality of life in a systematic fashion. Cancer is one of the chronic diseases where quality of life outcomes have been particularly salient. Currently, there are a wide variety of generic and cancer-specific instruments that are being used to evaluate the impact of cancer chemotherapy on the patient's quality of life. Most of these instruments rely on patient self-report rather than expert evaluation. The addition of quality-of-life (QOL) assessment to pharmacological investigations of cancer chemotherapy may enhance evaluation of clinical outcomes, as well as identify unsuspected drug toxicities. Clinicians, researchers and pharmaceutical companies are more frequently incorporating these measures into the design of cancer treatment protocols. Data on the performance of these tools should become more widely available in the near future, leading to refinements in the selection and use of specific instruments for different purposes.