Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL quality of life scores in patients with advanced cancer referred for palliative radiotherapy

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Supportive Care in Cancer Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Symptom control and improved quality of life (QOL) are primary goals of treatment in palliative oncology. The present study assessed and compared patient demographics, baseline Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) and QOL using the QLQ-C15-PAL questionnaire prior to palliative radiotherapy (RT) for bone, brain, or lung disease. Few studies have used this questionnaire, an abbreviated version that was developed by the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer specifically for patients with advanced cancer to decrease the burden of completing the longer, more time-consuming QLQ-C30.

Methods

Patients referred to an outpatient palliative RT clinic completed QLQ-C15-PAL questionnaires prior to palliative RT for bone, brain, or lung cancer sites. The associations between baseline QLQ-C15-PAL functional/symptom scales, patient demographics, and clinical variables including KPS were explored.

Results

When data from all 369 patients were analyzed, higher KPS scores correlated significantly with better overall QOL and higher physical and emotional functioning. The QLQ-C15-PAL provided more detailed information regarding how symptom burden varied depending on disease site. Patients with bone metastases had worse QLQ-C15-PAL scores for pain, while those with brain and lung disease had worse scores for fatigue. Other health-related QOL scores measured by the QLQ-C15-PAL varied as a function of age and gender.

Conclusion

As the QLQ-C15-PAL provides detailed and often critical information regarding symptom burden, it may eventually be recognized as a universal core questionnaire to assess QOL in this patient population with advanced cancer while relieving the survey burden.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Kirkbride P, Tannock IF (2008) Trials in palliative treatment—have the goal posts been moved? Lancet Oncol 9:186–187

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  2. Movsas B (2003) Quality of life in oncology trials: a clinical guide. Semin Radiat Oncol 13:235–247

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Spilker B, Revicki A (1996) Taxonomy of quality of life. In: Spilker B (ed) Quality of life and pharmacoeconomics in clinical trials. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia, p 1259

    Google Scholar 

  4. Chow E, Wu JS, Hoskin P et al (2002) International consensus on palliative radiotherapy endpoints for future clinical trials in bone metastases. Radiother Oncol 67:275–280

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Aaronson NK, Ahmedzai S, Bergman B et al (1993) The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30: a quality-of-life instrument for use in international clinical trials in oncology. J Natl Cancer Inst 85:365–376

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. EORTC group for research into Quality of Life (2010). European organization for research and treatment of cancer. http://groups.eortc.be/qol/. Accessed 15 August 2010

  7. Wong J, Hird A, Kirou-Mauro A, Napolskikh J, Chow E (2008) Quality of life in brain metastases radiation trials: a literature review. Curr Oncol 15:25–45

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Yaneva MP, Semerdjieva MA (2006) Assessment of the effect of palliative radiotherapy for cancer patients with intercranial metastases using EORTC-QOL-C30 questionnaire. Folia Med 48:23–29

    Google Scholar 

  9. Roos DE, Wirth A, Burmeister BH et al (2006) Whole brain irradiation following surgery or radiosurgery for soliatary brain metastases: mature results of a prematurely closed randomized trans-Tasman radiation oncology group trial (TROG98.05). Radiother Oncol 80:318–322

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Gerrard GE, Prestwich RJ, Edwards A et al (2003) Investigating the palliative efficacy of whole-brain radiotherapy for patients with multiple-brain metastases and poor prognostic features. Clin Oncol 15:422–428

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Mauer ME, Taphoorn MJ, Bottomley A et al (2007) Prognostic value of health-related quality-of-life data in predicting survival in patients with anaplastic oligodendrogliomas, from a phase III EORTC brain cancer group study. J Clin Oncol 25:5731–5737

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Kramer JA, Curran D, Piccart M et al (2000) Identification and interpretation of clinical and quality of life prognostic factors for survival and response to treatment in first-line chemotherapy in advanced breast cancer. Eur J Cancer 36:1498–1506

    Article  PubMed  CAS  Google Scholar 

  13. Groenvold M, Petersen MA, Aaronson NK et al (2006) The development of the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL: a shortened questionnaire for cancer patients in palliative care. Eur J Cancer 42:55–64

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  14. Steinmann D, Schäfer C, van Oorschot B et al (2009) Effects of radiotherapy for brain metastases on quality of life (QoL) prospective pilot study of the DEGRO QoL Working Party. Strahlenther Onkol 185:190–197

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Suárez-Del-Real Y, Allende-Pérez S, Alférez-Mancera A, et al. (2011) Validation of the Mexican–Spanish version of the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL questionnaire for the evaluation of health-related quality of life in patients on palliative care. Psychooncology (in press)

  16. Fayers PM, Aaronson N, Bjordal K et al (2001) The EORTC QLQ-C30 scoring manual, 3rd edn. European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Brussels

    Google Scholar 

  17. Shapiro SS, Wilk MB (1965) An analysis of variance test for normality (complete samples). Biometrika 52(3–4):591–611

    Google Scholar 

  18. Echteld MA, Deliens L, Onwuteaka-Philipsen B, Klein M, van der Wal G (2006) EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL: the new standard in the assessment of health-related quality of life in advaced cancer? Palliat Med 20:1–2

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  19. Groenvold M, Petersen MA, Aaronson NK et al (2006) EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL: the new standard in the assessment of health-related quality of life in advanced cancer? Palliat Med 20:59–61

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  20. Chow E, Bottomley A (2009) Understanding the EORTC QLQ-BM22, the module for patients with bone metastases. Expert Rev Pharmacoecon Outcomes Res 9:461–465

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  21. Chow E, Hird A, Velikova G et al (2009) The European organization for research and treatment of cancer quality of life questionnaire for patients with bonemetastases: the EORTC QLQ-BM22. Eur J Cancer 45:1146–1152

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  22. Rosemann T, Hermann K, Miksch A, Engeser P, Szecsenui J (2007) The PAMINO-project: evaluating a primary care-based educational program to improve the quality of life of palliative patients. BMC Palliat Care 6:5

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  23. Cheung WY, Le LW, Gaglieses L, Zimmermann C (2011) Age and gender differences in symptom intensity and symptom clusters amoung patients with metastatic cancer. Support Care Cancer 19:417–423

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

This project is generously supported by the Michael and Karyn Goldstein Cancer Research Fund. We thank Stacy Yuen and Kristina Facchini for their secretarial assistance.

Conflict of interest statement

None.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rapid Response Radiotherapy Program, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Amanda Caissie, Shaelyn Culleton, Janet Nguyen, Liying Zhang, Liang Zeng, Lori Holden, Kristopher Dennis, Esther Chan, Florencia Jon, May Tsao, Cyril Danjoux, Arjun Sahgal, Elizabeth Barnes, Kaitlin Koo & Edward Chow

  2. Department of Radiation Oncology, Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada, M4N 3M5

    Edward Chow

Authors
  1. Amanda Caissie
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shaelyn Culleton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Janet Nguyen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. Liying Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Liang Zeng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Lori Holden
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Kristopher Dennis
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Esther Chan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Florencia Jon
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. May Tsao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Cyril Danjoux
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Arjun Sahgal
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Elizabeth Barnes
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Kaitlin Koo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Edward Chow
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Edward Chow.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Caissie, A., Culleton, S., Nguyen, J. et al. EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL quality of life scores in patients with advanced cancer referred for palliative radiotherapy. Support Care Cancer 20, 841–848 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1160-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1160-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation