Quality-of-life assessment during palliative radiotherapy

A total of 164 consecutive patients with a range of biopsy-proven locally advanced or metastatic cancers were interviewed to assess quality of life using the Rotterdam Symptom Check List (RSCL) at three longitudinal time intervals during a course of palliative radiotherapy. Of the 164 patients, 120 were able to complete all 3 questionnaires. Paired t-tests were used to assess the significance of changes in the patients' mean scores over time. Of the 33 symptoms assessed in the RSCL, changes in the degree of symptomatology were highly consistent with changes expected in clinical practice, as a result of either disease progression or side effects of treatment. It is concluded that the RSCL provides a practical assessment of various symptoms in patients receiving palliative radiotherapy, and that the changes in symptom profile over time are relevant to clinical practice. The RSCL has never been previously used in the assessment of palliative radiotherapy, and the present study validates this instrument.