[Quality of life measure in cancerology]

Quality of life assessment in cardiology has become an important point in the overall evaluation of anticancer treatments. Quality of life is a multidimensional subjective concept usually assessed by self-administered questionnaires with a linear analogous design. Multiple choice questions can also be used to explore several dimensions of quality of life.

No one questionnaire is ideal. Two appear to be most widely used worldwide. The main body of these modular questionnaires is completed by specific sections dealing as needed with designated organs or treatment toxicity. Data interpretation is particularly difficult and must take into consideration the fact that most currently used questionnaires measure health in general rather than the philosophical concept of quality of life.

Use of quality of life questionnaires varies greatly. These tools can be used to estimate the impact of public health measures or treatments in general. They are most widely used to date as assessment tools for therapeutic trials or to provide secondary criteria in trials where survival is the main outcome criteria. In this case, they provide a means of comparing symptomatic treatment and anticancer treatments or two different anticancer treatments. Studies are under way to use quality of life scales in everyday patient care.

Certain authors have attempted to combine quality and quantity of life in a single tool in order to obtain a global index which could be used to compare large groups of patients. Different tools are still in the development phase.