Quality of life in the high-risk candidate for lung resection

Examination of the preferences of patients with lung cancer suggests that the ideal therapy may not be based on standard outcome measures such as survival, but should also consider the morbidity, adverse effects, and convenience of the treatment. Functional outcomes after lung resection have particular importance in guiding decision making in high-risk operative candidates. In this article, quality-of-life measures are reviewed in the context of guiding choices between operative and nonoperative therapies in a shared decision-making model for high-risk candidates for lung resection.