A pilot study of the Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC) Scale for the assessment of quality of life for metastatic lung cancer patients. An Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group study

Abstract

Quality of life is an important factor in the assessment of cancer therapy, but it is difficult to define and measure. The Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC) was designed specifically for cancer patients under treatment. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) mounted a pilot study to assess the feasibility and sensitivity of the patient-oriented FLIC scale for assessment of quality of life. The results of this study show that the FLIC scores correlate with the functional status of patients on treatment: high scores on the FLIC prior to therapy were found to correlate with good performance status (p = 0.0001), and decreases in the FLIC score during therapy correlated with a decline in performance status (p = 0.0001), with poor performance status (p = 0.0002), and greater than 5% recent weight loss (p = 0.004). However, there was poor compliance to completion of the instrument, indicating a need for future research into this aspect of assessing quality of life in the cooperative group setting.