[Quality of life measurement in cancer survivors]

The quality of life (QOL) of cancer patients can be measured by semi structured interview or by validated QOL instruments. Late effect toxicity scales can be used but do not account for the different domains of QOL measured by the patient. Health related quality of life can be measured by health general questionnaire or by specific cancer questionnaires. These instruments add to a core questionnaire, modules according for the organ or the toxicity of the treatments developed to evaluate cancer treatments. Some questions can be added to evaluate special domain as medical expenses, personal insurance. Some specific questionnaires for long-term survivors are available, which explore patient's satisfaction according to this status for different domains of QOL or quote different aspects in comparison with a normal population and are transformed into an utility index. There is no gold standard to measure long-term survivors' quality of life. The use of proxy is limited by discrepancies observed in the evaluation of pain, psychological symptoms and general quality of life. QOL can be evaluated in a cohort of patients in a longitudinally study or better in a case control study. Examples of QOL evaluation of different cancers sites are given.