[Quality of life as a catch phrase and promoter in the pharmaceutical industry]

Quality of life (QL) is an expression of the degree to which a tumor patient is satisfied and copes with his life and the therapy which is being administered. QL is influenced by physical, psychological and social factors as well as by time. During the individual course of a malignant disease and its therapy, changes in QL need to be assessed with the appropriate "measuring instruments". Once the quality of the data has been assured, comparisons can be made with respect to the influence of alternative therapies on QL. This is where "promotional" information from the pharmaceutical industry can be emphasized; QL degenerates to a useless term, however, if it is used indiscriminately and without proper validation of the data. A new concept, i.e. QUALYs (= Quality Adjusted Life Years), has originated in the USA, which attempts to add a dimension of currency value to the term LQ.