Abstract
Quality of life (QOL) in medicine has been evaluated as health-related QOL (HRQOL). HRQOL is a component of patient-reported outcomes (PROs). HRQOL is a true clinical endpoint when validated and reliable QOL instruments are used. Clinical trials often evaluated HRQOL as the secondary endpoint. Improvement of progression-free survival (PFS) with improved HRQOL would be clinically meaningful outcome. Recently, several randomized trials have been conducted with QOL as the primary endpoint. A randomized trial of early palliative care (EPC) integrated with standard oncologic care or standard oncologic care alone in patients with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) showed that EPC significantly improved QOL and mood. Median overall survival (OS) was longer among patients receiving EPC. The data suggests that QOL is highly related to OS and QOL evaluation should be integrated into oncology practice for patients with advanced lung cancer. To improve patient management, effective communication is necessary. Communication skill training (CST) program based on SHARE protocol is effective for both oncologists and patients with cancer. Because physicians tend to concentrate on cancer-related outcomes and often neglect assessments of QOL, tools to evaluate QOL would be useful to improve quality of care in patients with advanced lung cancer.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Thongprasert S, Sanguanmitra P, Juthapan W et al (1999) Relationship between quality of life and clinical outcomes in advanced non-small cell lung cancer: best supportive care (BSC) versus BSC plus chemotherapy. Lung Cancer 24:17–24
Kubota K, Watanabe K, Kunitoh H et al (2004) Phase III randomized trial of docetaxel plus cisplatin versus vindesine plus cisplatin in patients with stage IV non-small-cell lung cancer: the Japanese Taxotere Lung Cancer Study Group. J Clin Oncol 22:254–261
Ohe Y, Ohashi Y, Kubota K et al (2007) Randomized phase III study of cisplatin plus irinotecan versus carboplatin plus paclitaxel, cisplatin plus gemcitabine, and cisplatin plus vinorelbine for advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: Four-Arm Cooperative Study in Japan. Ann Oncol 18:317–323
Okamoto I, Yoshioka H, Morita S et al (2010) Phase III trial comparing oral S-1 plus carboplatin with paclitaxel plus carboplatin in chemotherapy-naïve patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: results of a west Japan oncology group study. J Clin Oncol 28:5240–5246
Kubota K, Sakai H, Katakami N et al (2015) A randomized phase III trial of oral S-1 plus cisplatin versus docetaxel plus cisplatin in Japanese patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer: TCOG0701 CATS trial. Ann Oncol 26:1401–1408
Mok TS, Wu YL, Thongprasert S et al (2009) Gefitinib or carboplatin-paclitaxel in pulmonary adenocarcinoma. N Engl J Med 361:947–957
Oizumi S, Kobayashi K, Inoue A et al (2012) Quality of life with gefitinib in patients with EGFR-mutated non-small cell lung cancer: quality of life analysis of North East Japan Study Group 002 Trial. Oncologist 17:863–870
Yang JC, Hirsh V, Schuler M et al (2013) Symptom control and quality of life in LUX-Lung 3: a phase III study of afatinib or cisplatin/pemetrexed in patients with advanced lung adenocarcinoma with EGFR mutations. J Clin Oncol 31:3342–3350
Galetta D, Cinieri S, Pisconti S et al (2015) Cisplatin/pemetrexed followed by maintenance pemetrexed versus carboplatin/paclitaxel/bevacizumab followed by maintenance bevacizumab in advanced nonsquamous lung cancer: the GOIM (Gruppo Oncologico Italia Meridionale) ERACLE Phase III randomized trial. Clin Lung Cancer 16:262–273
Temel JS, Greer JA, Muzikansky A et al (2010) Early palliative care for patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer. N Engl J Med 363:733–742
Temel JS, Greer JA, Admane S et al (2011) Longitudinal perceptions of prognosis and goals of therapy in patients with metastatic non-small-cell lung cancer: results of a randomized study of early palliative care. J Clin Oncol 29:2319–2326
Bakitas MA, Tosteson TD, Li Z et al (2015) Early versus delayed initiation of concurrent palliative oncology care: patient outcomes in the enable iii randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol 33:1438–1445
Fujimori M, Shirai Y, Asai M et al (2014) Effect of communication skills training program for oncologists based on patient preferences for communication when receiving bad news: a randomized controlled trial. J Clin Oncol 32:2166–2172
DeVita VT Jr, Lawrence TS, Rosenberg SA (2011) DeVita, Hellman, and Rosenberg’s cancer: principles and practice of oncology, 9th edn. Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Philadelphia
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Science+Business Media Singapore
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Nakamichi, S., Kubota, K. (2017). Health-Related Quality of Life in Molecular Targeted Therapy. In: Takiguchi, Y. (eds) Molecular Targeted Therapy of Lung Cancer. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2002-5_17
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-2002-5_17
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-2000-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-2002-5
eBook Packages: MedicineMedicine (R0)