[Quality of life in oncology]

The measure of the quality of life in cancerology appears more and more as a fundamental criteria in the evaluation of therapeutic results. The study of the quality of life obeys three types of aims: descriptive, correlational and explanatory, and therapeutic. For evaluation, scales for quality of life were introduced, these scales use a quotation technique with the help of questionnaires or linear analog self assessment. Questionnaires represent the mostly used method. They are composed of several questions or items having predetermined answers for which the patient should check or circle the choice corresponding best to his state. To be useable, a questionnaire must satisfy certain criteria of quality: reliability, validity and sensitivity. In spite of the remarkable progress during recent years in the evaluation of the quality of cancerous patient life, there still exists some conceptual and practical problems that are not yet solved.