Quality of life measures in soft tissue sarcoma

The assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQL) via patient-reported outcomes has the potential to answer critical questions and improve the care of soft tissue sarcoma (STS). This review outlines the rationale for quality of life measures in sarcoma, and details various instrument types: disease- and anatomic-specific, provider-generated, generic HRQL and health state utilities. Prior usage in STS populations, relative advantages of specific patient-reported outcome measures and a framework for selecting appropriate measures are discussed. Uniform incorporation of validated HRQL measures in STS clinical research would further the understanding of patient wellbeing beyond traditional clinical measures, and more widespread use of health state utilities measures in particular has the potential to facilitate comparative effectiveness research.