Cross-discipline
Cross-discipline

Quality of Life

Description

The EORTC Quality of Life Group (QLG) aims to better understand the effects of cancer and its treatments on Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) for patients across diverse populations and cultures.

Members of the group develop and refine questionnaires for use in clinical trials, research and clinical practice. They also collaborate with other EORTC disease-oriented groups to implement quality of life measurement in clinical trials.

For more information about Quality of Life, contact us.

Main Achievements

  • The EORTC QLG Core Questionnaire, the EORTC QLQ-C30, is a 30-item instrument meant to assess some of the different aspects that define the quality of life of cancer patients. It was the first instrument to be developed by the EORTC QLG and it is the product of more than a decade of collaborative research. Since its general release in 1993, the QLQ-C30 has been translated and tested in over 120 languages and has been used in a wide range of cancer clinical trials, by a large number of research groups; it has additionally been used in various other, non-trial studies.
  • In addition to the EORTC QLQ-C30, the QLG has also developed ‘modules’, which are questionnaires aiming to assess the impact on patients’ quality of life for specific tumour sites, treatment modality, or a quality of life dimension, to be administered in addition to the core questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). There are currently 45 fully validated modules, including the EORTC QLQ-30.
  • Validated in 2023, the EORTC Computer-Adaptive Test (CAT) Core is a dynamic, computer-based version of the EORTC QLQ-C30 that selects tailored questions based on patients’ responses, increasing precision while reducing burden.
  • The EORTC Item Library complements the set of EORTC Quality of Life questionnaires: this is a dynamic online platform containing over 1,000 validated items (questions) from 75 questionnaires, allowing users to create customised item lists tailored to specific clinical or research needs.

Related Projects

The SISAQOL-IMI (Setting International Standards in Analysing Patient-Reported Outcomes and Quality of Life Endpoints – Innovative Medecines Initiative) Consortium is an international, multi‑stakeholder initiative co-led by EORTC and Boehringer Ingelheim that aimed to improve the way patient‑reported outcome (PROs) data are analysed, interpreted and reported in cancer clinical trials. Through broad consensus across academia, regulators, industry and patient representatives, SISAQOL-IMI developed harmonised, evidence‑based recommendations and practical tools to ensure PRO data are robust, comparable and meaningful, ultimately strengthening their use in regulatory decision‑making, health policy and patient‑centred cancer care. Read more about this project and SISAQOL follow-up activities here.

Research Group

Group website
  • Chair

    Jaap Reijneveld

    Amsterdam UMC

    Amsterdam, Netherlands

  • Secretary

    Martin Eichler

    National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT/UCC)

    Dresden, Germany

  • Treasurer

    Olga Husson

    Netherlands Cancer Institute, Amsterdam; Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam

    Amsterdam & Rotterdam, Netherlands

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