Methods for assessing quality of life in cancer

Abstract

Background. The problem of a significant reduction in the quality of life (QoL) of oncological patients remains relevant despite current achievements in medicine. The issue of standardizing methods for assessing QoL in such patients is relatively acute. Patients undergo this assessment from the diagnostic stage to the end of rehabilitation, so it’s important to choose an accurate and precise method for QoL evaluation.Objective: to analyze existing questionnaire-based methods for assessing QoL in cancer patients.Material and methods. The search for publications was conducted in the scientific databases PubMed/MEDLINE, ScienceDirect, and eLibrary. Additionally, the sources found by queries in Yandex and Google search engines by each researcher individually were considered. The review included 38 articles.Results. The vast majority of questionnaires used to assess QoL in oncological patients can be divided into two large groups: based on QLQ-C30 and FACT-G. Despite the similarity between QLQ-C30 and FACT-G questionnaires, some shift in their focus was shown. QLQ-C30 is more oriented on physical indicators, and FACT-G is more aimed at social and emotional well-being. Besides them, questionnaires that proved to identify and monitor individual groups of symptoms and syndromes were presented: FSFI, HADS and Russian questionnaire on well-being, activity, mood.Conclusion. The obtained results indicated a fairly wide choice of questionnaires for the overall assessment of QoL and its individual elements. They include both proven screening and monitoring tools and those requiring validation and expansion of the evidence base. Due to high effectiveness of questionnaires as QoL screening and monitoring tools, further work is needed to ensure that they are widely included in clinical guidelines.