title: Quality of life and symptom evaluation in daily oncology practice: a survey of 150 patients with advanced gastrointestinal tumours receiving palliative chemotherapy.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of life (QoL) is frequently investigated as a secondary endpoint in clinical trials but is rarely evaluated in clinical practice. The present survey sought to assess the QoL of patients with advanced gastrointestinal tumours receiving palliative chemotherapy. Furthermore, we wanted to compare the results of subscales of the generic EORTC QLQ-C30 (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Quality of Life Questionnaire, version 3.0) using assessment tools with an emphasis on pain and depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  150 patients with gastrointestinal tumours undergoing palliative chemotherapy completed 3 questionnaires. QoL was assessed using the EORTC QLQ-C30, Beck depression inventory (BDI) was utilised to measure the severity of patients' depression and a visual analogue scale (VAS) was applied to measure patient's pain intensity. Correlations between these assessments were calculated.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The survey revealed that treatment of pain and depression appeared to be inadequate in the present cohort of patients with metastatic gastrointestinal cancer. Good correlations between EORTC QLQ-C30 subscales and the VAS (r = 0.86), as well as the BDI (r = 0.63) were found.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The present analysis indicates the need for better symptom control regarding the examples 'pain' and 'depression'. In view of the good correlation between the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the BDI and VAS, further studies on the implementation of the EORTC QLQ-C30 as a screening tool, or for follow-up measurements in daily practice are warranted.
authors: TagesTherapieZentrum, Interdisziplinäres Tumorzentrum, Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany.
authors: Katharina
authors: K
authors: Schultheis
authors: Ralf-Dieter
authors: RD
authors: Hofheinz
authors: Deniz
authors: D
authors: Gencer
authors: James A
authors: JA
authors: Blunk
authors: Justus
authors: J
authors: Benrath
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D015897:Comorbidity; D003625:Data Collection; D003863:Depression / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008495:Medical Oncology; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D015995:Prevalence; D011788:Quality of Life; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents