[Assessment of the quality of life of patients with incurable head-neck tumors]

Abstract

Assessment of the quality of life is an additional, perhaps crucial criterion for deciding on the choice of a palliative therapy. Therefore it is necessary to know what "quality of life" means to the individual patient. We developed a questionnaire in cooperation with patients suffering from cancer of head and neck. With this questionnaire it is possible to judge how the patient rates his own quality of life. The questionnaire helps the physician to develop a palliative therapy schedule taking the psyosocial background into consideration. It improves the practicability of prospective studies concerning palliative therapy schedules.