title: Quality of life measures in lung cancer.
abstract: Lung cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer death worldwide. Survival has not improved significantly in spite of newer therapies. In view of the high-symptom burden and severe morbidity, evaluation of quality of life (QOL) becomes important in these patients. Several instruments are now available for this purpose, and have demonstrated good correlation with performance status, symptoms, and survival. Quality of life assessments also help in comparing different therapeutic regimes, thus allowing selection of the appropriate modality. Problems of inconsistent interpretability and high-patient dropout rate poses a challenging problem that needs to be tackled. In spite of these drawbacks, QOL is now considered to be an essential component of lung cancer management and should be performed routinely. Such a practice will help the physician plan appropriate treatment strategies and set practical therapeutic goals.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Ansari Nagar, New Delhi-110029, India.
authors.forename: Mohan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Anant
authors.forename: Randeep
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Guleria
authors.forename: Ashutosh K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Pathak
authors.forename: Manisha
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bhutani
authors.forename: Hemraj
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.forename: Mohan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Charu
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kochupillai
mesh_terms: D001294:Attitude to Health; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D011379:Prognosis; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011788:Quality of Life; D018570:Risk Assessment; D018434:Sickness Impact Profile; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires