Consideration of quality of life in cancer survivorship research

Abstract

Quality of life assessment has a number of important applications in research on cancer survivors. These applications include use in observational studies to characterize the nature and extent of problems patients experience as well as use in randomized controlled trials to evaluate the relative impact of different cancer treatments or to evaluate the efficacy of interventions designed to improve patient well-being. The aims of this article are to provide an overview of the construct of quality of life and describe strategies commonly used to measure quality of life in adult cancer survivors. In addition, several priorities for future research are identified that involve how quality of life is measured, in whom it is measured, and what uses are made of quality of life data in the clinical care of cancer survivors.