Quality of life in lung cancer

The prognosis of a patient with lung cancer is poor and the quality is at least as important as the quantity of remaining life. Quality of life is a useful concept which is almost impossible to define but there are a number of important factors which contribute to it. Culture, religion, previous experience and the point of view of the individual all contribute to which of these factors are considered most important. Any quality of life assessment will, therefore, only apply to a defined community. The measurement of quality of life in cancer trials should concentrate on a few important categories such as physical symptoms, psychology and social factors and should be simple rather than comprehensive. In addition, a few frequent measures are better than an occasional comprehensive survey and ideally, both approaches should be combined and compared. Such measurements are most useful for comparative trials rather than for making an overall quality of life estimate. Finally, for routine clinical use outside clinical trials the quality of life index or the Karnofsky scale is recommended.