title: Quality of life assessment in dogs and cats receiving chemotherapy - a review of current methods.
abstract: This study aimed to review currently reported methods of assessing the effects of chemotherapy on the quality of life (QoL) of canine and feline patients and to explore novel ways to assess QoL in such patients in the light of the experience to date in human pediatric oncology. A qualitative comparative analysis of published papers on the effects of chemotherapy on QoL in dogs and cats were conducted. This was supplemented with a comparison of the parameters and domains used in veterinary QoL-assessments with those used in the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL™) questionnaire designed to assess QoL in toddlers. Each of the identified publications including QoL-assessment in dogs and cats receiving chemotherapy applied a different method of QoL-assessment. In addition, the veterinary QoL-assessments were mainly focused on physical clinical parameters, whereas the emotional (6/11), social (4/11) and role (4/11) domains were less represented. QoL-assessment of cats and dogs receiving chemotherapy is in its infancy. The most commonly reported method to assess QoL was questionnaire based and mostly included physical and clinical parameters. Standardizing and including a complete range of potentially relevant parameters in future QoL assessments may benefit owner decision making.
authors.affiliation: Department of Large Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Kåre K
authors.initials: KK
authors.lastname: Vøls
authors.affiliation: Department of Large Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Martin A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Heden
authors.affiliation: Department of Veterinary Clinical and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Annemarie T
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: Kristensen
authors.affiliation: Department of Large Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.|Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sandøe
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002371:Cat Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D002415:Cats; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy*; D004285:Dogs; D004358:Drug Therapy / Q000662:veterinary*; D064420:Drug-Related Side Effects and Adverse Reactions / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D011788:Quality of Life; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: chemotherapy; comparative oncology; oncology; small animal; small animal internal medicine