Prognostic value of quality-of-life scores during chemotherapy for advanced breast cancer. Australian New Zealand Breast Cancer Trials Group.

Abstract

These findings support the validity of the simple QL measures used in the trial. They are compatible with the simple explanation that patients perceive disease progression before it is clinically evident, but also with a causal relationship between QL and survival duration.

Pre-transplantation physical and mental functioning is strongly associated with self-reported recovery from stem cell transplantation

“…This issue has not been examined extensively in HCT, and it contrasts with a growing body of literature in other malignancies, where pre-treatment QOL has been shown to be a predictor of survival in advanced breast cancer, 23 lung cancer, 24,25 colorectal cancer, 26 melanoma 27 and multiple myeloma, 28 among others. Possible reasons for this might include the following: the high treatment-related morbidity and mortality of HCT in contrast to conventional chemotherapy; the rapidity of relapse and progression of aggressive hematologic malignancy after HCT; that HCT is a curative modality, whereas chemotherapy for metastatic solid tumors is generally not; and that patients may be undergoing HCT before the development of serious impairment as a result of their illness, as in stable-phase CML.…”

Quality-of-Life Comparisons in a Randomized Trial of Interval Secondary Cytoreduction in Advanced Ovarian Carcinoma: A Gynecologic Oncology Group Study

“…These data are consistent with the literature, which suggests that QOL scores can be predictive of survival in advanced cancer patients. [10][11][12][13] Consequently, this type of nonintrusive assessment can be a useful measure of disease-and treatment-related health status and QOL over the course of a cancer patient's treatment. The knowledge gained from an assessment of QOL as related to ovarian cancer clinical trials is particularly important when, as is the case in this study, survival time does not differ between treatment arms.…”

“…Prospective studies of patients with breast, lung, and mixed advanced cancers indicate that QOL and performance status (PS) can be prognostic. [10][11][12][13] At the time of this report, these relationships had not been examined in patients with advanced ovarian cancer. To our knowledge, this is the first multicenter study to longitudinally examine QOL as a potential predictor of survival in this patient population.…”

Self-reported health-related quality of life is an independent predictor of chemotherapy treatment benefit and toxicity in women with advanced breast cancer

“…In a pivotal study conducted by Coates et al (1987), patient-rated QL improved significantly on average in women with advanced breast cancer receiving palliative chemotherapy, and both baseline QL scores and subsequent changes were prognostic for survival (Coates et al, 1992). Although chemotherapy is effective in relieving cancer-related symptoms, these average benefits may not accrue to all patients and may in some cases be offset by the significant physical and psychological side-effects.…”

“…Poor QL before treatment is associated with shorter survival in patients with advanced breast cancer (Coates et al, 1992;Efficace et al, 2004;Winer et al, 2004;Gotay et al, 2008). However, there is only limited evidence of the relationship between baseline QL and response to chemotherapy (Seidman et al, 1995;Kramer et al, 2000;Winer et al, 2004) and treatment-related toxicity.…”