Abstract
Accurate assessment of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients with advanced
colorectal cancer is essential to improve our understanding of how cancer and chemotherapy
influence patients' life and to adapt treatment strategies. Specific questionnaires
have descriptive and predictive value and can be used to evaluate new therapies. Results
from HRQoL assessments in randomised trials help patients and physicians to choose
between treatment options. More than half of the patients treated with palliative
chemotherapy have an improvement or at least a preservation of their HRQoL. However,
several trials have found small differences in HRQoL between treatment groups. This
may be due to the insufficient sensitivity of tools, low numbers of patients or missing
data. An international consensus on the methods of measurement of HRQoL in oncology
is warranted to enhance compliance, to better interpret results and to optimise the
publication of precise HRQoL data.
Keywords
To read this article in full you will need to make a payment
Purchase one-time access:
Academic & Personal: 24 hour online accessCorporate R&D Professionals: 24 hour online accessOne-time access price info
- For academic or personal research use, select 'Academic and Personal'
- For corporate R&D use, select 'Corporate R&D Professionals'
Subscribe:
Subscribe to European Journal of CancerAlready a print subscriber? Claim online access
Already an online subscriber? Sign in
Register: Create an account
Institutional Access: Sign in to ScienceDirect
References
- Outcomes of cancer treatment for technology assessment and cancer treatment guidelines.J. Clin. Oncol. 1996; 14: 671-679
- Palliative chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer.Br. Med. J. 2000; 321: 531-536
- Measuring the quality of life cancer patients. A concise QL-index for use by physicians.J. Chron. Dis. 1981; 34: 585-597
- Randomized comparison of four tools measuring overall quality of life in patients with advanced cancer.J. Clin. Oncol. 1998; 16: 3662-3673
- Measuring the quality of life of cancer patients: the Functional Living Index-Cancer: development and validation.J. Clin. Oncol. 1984; 2: 472-483
- The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30.J. Natl. Cancer Inst. 1993; 85: 365-376
- Quality of Life (HRQoL) in advanced colorectal cancer (ACC).Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol. 1999; 18: 234a
- Interpreting the significance of changes in health-related quality-of-life scores.J. Clin. Oncol. 1998; 16: 139-144
- The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy scale.J. Clin. Oncol. 1993; 11: 570-579
- Meaningful change in cancer-specific quality of life scores.Qual. Life Res. 2002; 11: 207-221
- Comparison of quality of life cancer-specific instruments.Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol. 2001; 20: 401a
- Measuring psychological and physical distress in cancer patients.Br. J. Cancer. 1990; 62: 1034-1038
- The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.Acta Psychiatr. Scand. 1983; 67: 361-370
- Proposition of a specific quality of life scale for patients treated by conservative surgery for rectal cancer.Lyon Chir. 1993; 89: 135
- The construction and testing of the EORTC colorectal cancer-specific quality of life questionnaire module (QLQ-CR38).Eur. J. Cancer. 1999; 35: 238-247
- Reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Colorectal (FACT-C) quality of life instrument.Qual. Life Res. 1999; 8: 181-195
- Two phase III trials of tauromustine (TCNU) in advanced colorectal cancer.Ann. Oncol. 1995; 6: 948-949
- Quality of life in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer receiving chemotherapy.Pharmacotherapy. 1995; 15: 600-607
- Quality of life predicts for both response and survival in patients treated for metastatic colorectal cancer. Results of a randomized phase III study.Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol. 1996; 5: 213
- Relation between tumor size, quality of life, and survival in patients with colorectal liver metastases.J. Clin. Oncol. 1996; 14: 171-175
- Quality of life (QL) is a prognostic factor (PF) for survival in patients with advanced colorectal cancer (CRC).Eur. J. Cancer. 1997; 33: S170
- Marked 24-h rest/activity rhythms are associated with better quality of life, better response, and longer survival in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer and good performance status.Clin. Cancer Res. 2000; 6: 3038-3045
- Comparison of survival, palliation, and quality of life with three chemotherapy regimens in metastatic colorectal cancer.Lancet. 2002; 359: 1555-1563
- Baseline quality of life predicts survival in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.Eur. J. Cancer. 2002; 38: 1351-1357
- General condition of asymptomatic patients with advanced colorectal cancer receiving palliative chemotherapy.Acta Oncol. 1992; 31: 645-651
- Symptom assessment in advanced cancer.Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol. 2001; 20: 386a
- Quality of life during chemotherapy in patients with symptomatic advanced colorectal cancer.Cancer. 1994; 73: 556-562
- Final results of a randomised trial comparing “Tomudex”® (raltitrexed) with 5-fluorouracil plus leucovorin in advanced colorectal cancer.Ann. Oncol. 1996; 7: 961-965
- Randomized comparison of combination chemotherapy plus supportive care with supportive care alone in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.Br. Med. J. 1993; 306: 752-755
- Quality of life and survival with continuous hepatic-artery floxuridine infusion for colorectal liver metastases.Lancet. 1994; 344: 1255-1260
- Expectancy or primary chemotherapy in patients with advanced asymptomatic colorectal cancer.J. Clin. Oncol. 1992; 10: 904-911
- A meta-analysis of two randomized trials of early chemotherapy in asymptomatic metastatic colorectal cancer.Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol. 2001; 20: 132a
- Randomized trial assessing the addition of interferon α-2a to fluorouracil and leucovorin in advanced colorectal cancer.J. Clin. Oncol. 1996; 14: 2280-2288
- Quality of life during cytostatic therapy for advanced symptomatic colorectal carcinoma.Eur. J. Cancer Clin. Oncol. 1989; 25: 829-835
- Leucovorin and fluorouracil with or without oxaliplatin as first-line treatment in advanced colorectal cancer.J. Clin. Oncol. 2000; 18: 2938-2947
- Does effective chemotherapy metastatic colorectal cancer (CC) improve quality of life (QL). Preliminary results of a randomized phase II-study using the EORTC QLQ C30.Eur. J. Cancer. 1995; 31A: S62
- A prospective randomised trial of protracted venous infusion 5-fluorouracil with or without mitomycin C in advanced colorectal cancer.Ann. Oncol. 1997; 8: 995-1001
- Irinotecan combined with fluorouracil compared with fluorouracil alone as first-line treatment for metastatic colorectal cancer.Lancet. 2000; 355: 1041-1047
- Irinotecan plus fluorouracil and leucovorin for metastatic colorectal cancer.N. Engl. J. Med. 2000; 343: 905-914
- Challenges posed by non-random missing quality of life data in an advanced-stage colorectal cancer clinical trial.Psychooncology. 2000; 9: 340-354
- Quality of life as subjective experience.Ann. Oncol. 1999; 10: 775-782
- Continuous vs intermittant chemotherapy for advanced colorectal cancer.Proc. Am. Soc. Clin. Oncol. 2001; 20: 125a
- Randomized placebo-controlled evaluation of hydrazine sulfate in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.J. Clin. Oncol. 1994; 12: 1121-1125
- Randomised trial of irinotecan plus supportive care versus supportive care alone after fluorouracil failure for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.Lancet. 1998; 352: 1413-1418
- Randomised trial of irinotecan versus fluorouracil by continuous infusion after fluorouracil failure in patients with metastatic colorectal cancer.Lancet. 1998; 352: 1407-1412
- Bénéfices cliniques de la stabilisation tumorale lors d'une chimiothérapie de deuxième ligne dans le cancer colorectal métastatique.Bull. Cancer. 1999; 86: 195-201
- Randomized trial of coordinated psychosocial interventions based on patient self-assessments versus standard care to improve the psychosocial functioning of patients with cancer.J. Clin. Oncol. 2001; 19: 4117-4125
- Measuring quality of life in clinical practice improved patient satisfaction.Qual. Life Res. 2001; 10: 195
- Automated collection of quality of life data.J. Clin. Oncol. 1999; 17: 998-1007
- Ensuring the quality of quality of life data.Stat. Med. 1998; 17: 641-651
- Compliance in quality of life data.Stat. Med. 1998; 17: 623-632
- Practical issues in quality of life assessment in multicentre trials conducted by the Swiss Group for Clinical Cancer Research.Stat. Med. 1998; 17: 633-639
Young T, De Haes H, Curran D, et al. EORTC Guidelines for Assessing Quality of Life in EORTC Clinical Trials. The EORTC Quality of Life Group and EORTC Quality of Life Unit, Version 2, March 2002.
Bernhard J, Gelber RD, eds. Workshop on missing data in quality of life research in cancer trials: practical and methodological issues. Stat. Med. 1998, 17, 511–796.
- Patient ‘non-compliance’ and ‘missing data’ in quality of life research.Eur. J. Cancer. 1998; 34: 9-11
- Open, randomised, multicenter trial of raltitrexed versus fluorouracil plus high-dose leucovorin in patients with advanced colorectal cancer.J. Clin. Oncol. 1998; 16: 2943-2952
- Alternative methods of interpreting quality of life data in advanced gastrointestinal cancer patients.Br. J. Cancer. 2001; 85: 1265-1272
Article info
Publication history
Accepted:
October 3,
2002
Received:
October 1,
2002
Identification
Copyright
© 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
