[Assessment of QOL in cancer drug therapy using 22-item questionnaire]

In order to integrate quality of life as the end point in the cancer drug therapy, a questionnaire form has been developed over the past four years by a Grant-in-Aid for Cancer Research from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Japan. Fifty-one items generated by questionnaires were forwarded to oncologists, nurses, psychologists and 121 patients. Then questionnaires were scaled down to 36 items based upon factor analysis considering correlation to State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and Self-rating Depression Scale (SDS). These 36 items were administered to 536 patients. Finally, a 22-item questionnaire was completed by rechecking correlations with PS, STAI, SDS and Cronbach's alpha. It includes such components as physical activities (6 items), psychological (5 items) and social variables (5 items), symptoms (5 items) and global well-being (1 item: face scale). In our treatment of G. I. cancer by chemotherapy, NC patients showed improvement (+1.56 score), especially in physical functions (+2.43 score), but with slight deterioration (-0.25 score).