# Quality of life

Source: https://onco.cc/terms/quality-of-life/  
OnCo record `quality-of-life` (Term). Data CC BY-NC 4.0, attribute "Data from OnCo (onco.cc)"; commercial use needs a licence.

## TL;DR

How a patient actually feels and functions day to day: symptoms, energy, mood, ability to work and live normally. Measured with questionnaires, it is the outcome that matters most alongside survival, and the one trials have historically neglected.

## Summary

Standard instruments (EORTC QLQ-C30, FACT-G, EQ-5D) ask patients to rate pain, fatigue, nausea, physical and social function, and are collected repeatedly during a trial; results are reported as change from baseline or time until quality of life deteriorates. They matter because a drug that extends progression-free survival by two months while making patients feel worse may not be a good trade, and because regulators and health systems increasingly weigh them in approval and pricing. Performance status (ECOG 0 to 4) is the clinician's brief summary of how well a patient functions and gates who is fit enough for treatment and for trials.

## Fields

- Kind: Term
- Last checked: 2026-09-09
- Also known as: QoL; HRQoL; health-related quality of life; patient-reported outcomes; patient-reported outcome; PROs; PRO; patient-reported; symptom burden; functional status; performance status; ECOG; ECOG 0-1; ECOG performance status; Karnofsky; time to deterioration; wellbeing

## Sources

- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life_(healthcare)
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quality_of_life_(healthcare)

## Connected records

- terms: [Bipolar androgen therapy (BAT)](https://onco.cc/terms/bipolar-androgen-therapy/), [Endpoint](https://onco.cc/terms/endpoint/), [Financial toxicity](https://onco.cc/terms/financial-toxicity/), [Intermittent androgen deprivation (IAD)](https://onco.cc/terms/intermittent-androgen-deprivation/), [Other-cause mortality](https://onco.cc/terms/other-cause-mortality/), [Overtreatment](https://onco.cc/terms/overtreatment/), [Palliation in lung cancer: breathlessness, pleural effusion, blocked airway, bone and brain](https://onco.cc/terms/lung-palliation-breathlessness-effusion-obstruction/), [Palliative](https://onco.cc/terms/palliative-treatment/), [Side effect versus adverse event](https://onco.cc/terms/side-effect-vs-adverse-event/), [The scar on the face after skin cancer surgery](https://onco.cc/terms/facial-scar-after-skin-cancer/), [Toxicity grade](https://onco.cc/terms/toxicity-grade/)
- technologies: [A changed face and voice: body image after head and neck cancer treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-visible-difference-head-and-neck/), [Acupuncture and acupressure for chemotherapy nausea](https://onco.cc/technologies/acupuncture-nausea/), [Adolescents and young adults: a group with its own cancers, its own gap and its own needs](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-distinct-group/), [After a transplant or cell therapy: what to ask for](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-tx-what-to-ask-for/), [After ruxolitinib: belumosudil, axatilimab and ibrutinib in chronic GvHD](https://onco.cc/technologies/gvhd-belumosudil-axatilimab-ibrutinib/), [After treatment in Australia: a stated model of survivorship care](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-survivorship-care-australia/), [After treatment in Germany: a rehabilitation entitlement, not a leaflet](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-survivorship-care-germany/), [After treatment in low and middle income countries: mostly nothing](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-survivorship-care-lmic/), [After treatment in the Nordic countries: rehabilitation written into the pathway](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-survivorship-care-nordic/), [After treatment in the UK: personalised care, and follow-up you lead yourself](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-survivorship-care-uk/), [After treatment in the United States: the survivorship care plan, and what the trial found](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-survivorship-care-us/), [Anxiety after cancer, in survivors and in their partners](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-anxiety-after-cancer/), [Anxiety around scans, and what the evidence says about how often to scan](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-scan-anxiety/), [Asking people how they are, every week, as a treatment in its own right](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-epro-as-treatment/), [Balance, dizziness and falls after cancer treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-balance-vestibular/), [Body image after cancer treatment: how it is measured, what drives it, and what helps](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-body-image-after-cancer/), [Breast reconstruction: implant and autologous, immediate and delayed, and what women report afterwards](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recon-breast/), [BREAST-Q and the Q-portfolio: measuring what an operation left behind](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-breast-q/), [Breathing and exercise capacity after lung resection](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-respiratory/), [Cancer rehabilitation: the discipline that puts function back](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-cancer-rehabilitation/), [Children of a parent treated for cancer](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-children-of-a-parent-with-cancer/), [Chronic GvHD organ by organ: skin, mouth, eyes, gut, liver, joints and genital tract](https://onco.cc/technologies/gvhd-organ-by-organ/), [Cognitive behavioural therapy for fatigue and distress](https://onco.cc/technologies/cbt-fatigue-distress/), [Cognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I)](https://onco.cc/technologies/cbt-insomnia-cancer/), [Compounded hormone pellets](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-frontier-hormone-pellets/), [Depression during and after cancer: the interview-based prevalence, and the care model that works](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-depression-after-cancer/), [Education, work and the years that were interrupted](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-education-and-work/), [Employment rights with cancer in the United Kingdom](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-employment-rights-uk/), [Employment rights with cancer in the United States](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-employment-rights-us/), [EORTC QLQ-C30: the questionnaire most cancer trials use](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-eortc-qlq-c30/), [Epigenetic age after cancer treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-age-epigenetic-clocks/), [EQ-5D: health reduced to one number, and what that number is for](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-eq-5d/), [Extracorporeal photopheresis for graft-versus-host disease](https://onco.cc/technologies/gvhd-photopheresis/), [Facial reconstruction and facial prostheses: ears, orbits and noses](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recon-facial-prosthetics/), [FACT-G and the FACIT family: the other main questionnaire](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-fact-and-facit/), [Fat grafting after cancer surgery](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-frontier-fat-grafting/), [Fatigue after cancer treatment: what actually works](https://onco.cc/technologies/cancer-related-fatigue-management/), [Fear that the cancer will come back: how common it is, and when it stops being ordinary worry](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-fear-of-recurrence/), [Fertility, growth and what total body irradiation costs](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-tx-fertility-and-growth/), [Frailty and late effects in survivors](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-age-frailty-and-late-effects/), [Geriatric assessment](https://onco.cc/technologies/geriatric-assessment/), [Getting psychological help after cancer: the stepped-care model, and what is actually commissioned](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-access-to-psychological-care/), [Going back to driving, lifting and exercise](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-driving-and-exercise-return/), [Going back to work after cancer: the rates, and the programmes that change them](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-return-to-work/), [Head and neck reconstruction: the free flap, and what it gives back](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recon-head-neck/), [How chronic GvHD is diagnosed and scored: the NIH consensus criteria](https://onco.cc/technologies/gvhd-nih-consensus-criteria/), [How long it takes to diagnose cancer in a young person, and what the evidence actually says](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-diagnostic-delay/), [How much illness childhood cancer survivors carry, and at what age](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-chronic-disease-burden/), [How recovery is measured: the questionnaires behind the numbers](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-patient-reported-outcomes/), [ICANS, and whether thinking recovers after CAR-T](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-tx-icans-and-neurocognition/), [Insurance, mortgages and the right to be forgotten](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-insurance-loans-and-the-right-to-be-forgotten/), [Late effects after a stem cell transplant](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-tx-late-effects-overview/), [Limb salvage, amputation, and the rehabilitation that follows either](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recon-limb/), [Living with a stoma, and living after an amputation](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-body-after-stoma-and-limb-loss/), [Massage therapy in cancer care](https://onco.cc/technologies/massage-therapy-cancer/), [Measuring fear of recurrence: the FCRI and its cut-off](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-fear-of-recurrence-inventory/), [Measuring lymphoedema: tape, bioimpedance and the quality of life scales](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-lymphoedema/), [Measuring memory and concentration after treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-cognitive-function/), [Memory, attention and learning after treatment of a childhood cancer](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-paed-neurocognitive/), [Mindfulness-based stress reduction and cognitive therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/mindfulness-based-interventions/), [Money after treatment: what the cost of cancer does once the treatment has finished](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-money-after-treatment/), [Music therapy and music medicine](https://onco.cc/technologies/music-therapy-cancer/), [Partners and relationships after cancer: what the divorce data actually show](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-partners-and-intimacy/), [Peer support and support groups](https://onco.cc/technologies/peer-support-groups/), [Pelvic floor rehabilitation after prostate and rectal surgery and after pelvic radiotherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-pelvic-floor/), [Platelet-rich plasma for survivors](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-frontier-platelet-rich-plasma/), [Post-traumatic growth: what people report, and what the measurement actually captures](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-post-traumatic-growth/), [Post-traumatic stress after cancer: what is measured, and how much of it is measurement](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-traumatic-stress-after-cancer/), [PRO-CTCAE: side effects graded by the person having them](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-pro-ctcae/), [PROMIS: the item banks that let a short questionnaire be precise](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-promis/), [Prospective surveillance: looking for the problem before it becomes a disability](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-prospective-surveillance/), [Quality of life after transplant and cell therapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-tx-quality-of-life/), [Recovery after pelvic exenteration](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recon-pelvic-exenteration/), [Referral to rehabilitation: the service most people who need it never see](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-rehabilitation-referral/), [Relaxation training and guided imagery](https://onco.cc/technologies/relaxation-guided-imagery/), [Scars, stiffness and contracture: shoulders, necks and jaws](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-scar-contracture/), [Screening for distress: what the thermometer can and cannot do](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-distress-screening/), [Services built for teenagers and young adults, and what the national evaluation found](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-ayac-services/), [Sleep after cancer: how common insomnia is, how long it lasts, and the treatment that works](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-sleep-after-cancer/), [Sleeping tablets after cancer: what they do and what they do not](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-sleeping-tablets-after-cancer/), [Stoma reversal after rectal cancer surgery: who gets the bowel joined up again](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recon-stoma-reversal/), [Swallowing therapy around head and neck radiotherapy](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-swallowing/), [Tai chi and qigong](https://onco.cc/technologies/tai-chi-qigong/), [The biological age test you can buy, and whether to buy one](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-consumer-biological-age-tests/), [The carer's own recovery: what is known about the person who is not the patient](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-life-carers/), [The devices that do the restoring, and who pays for them](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-assistive-devices/), [The exercise prescription after cancer: the dose the guidelines state](https://onco.cc/technologies/exercise-prescription-after-cancer/), [The gap between the rehabilitation people need and the rehabilitation they are offered](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-provision-gap/), [The questionnaires that were never returned, and the people never asked](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-missing-data-and-who-is-not-asked/), [The word survivor, and why the vocabulary is not a detail](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-the-word-survivor/), [Thinking and memory after cancer treatment: what is measurable, and what helps](https://onco.cc/technologies/cognitive-impairment-after-cancer-treatment/), [Treating fear of recurrence: the randomised trials, their effect sizes, and where the treatment is available](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-mind-fear-of-recurrence-treatment/), [Voice after the larynx is removed](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recon-voice-after-laryngectomy/), [Wearables and step counts: measuring what someone actually does](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-wearables-and-step-counts/), [What a difference has to be before a person would notice it](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-minimally-important-difference/), [What a prehabilitation programme actually contains, and how long it needs](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-prehabilitation-programme/), [What actually works after treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-frontier-what-works/), [What comes back after treatment, treatment by treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-recovery-matrix/), [What has actually been implemented since those trials, and what has not](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-measure-epro-implementation/), [What recovery costs in the rest of the world](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-what-it-costs-elsewhere/), [What recovery costs in the UK, and what it does not](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-what-it-costs-uk/), [What recovery costs in the United States](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-what-it-costs-us/), [What the randomised trials of prehabilitation found, operation by operation](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-prehabilitation-evidence/), [When steroids fail: ruxolitinib for steroid-refractory GvHD](https://onco.cc/technologies/gvhd-ruxolitinib-steroid-refractory/), [Where rehabilitation is commissioned, and who misses out](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-rehab-commissioning-inequity/), [Who is supposed to be watching: EBMT, CIBMTR, FACT-JACIE, and what a survivor is actually offered](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-tx-long-term-follow-up-frameworks/), [Who misses out on recovery care, measured](https://onco.cc/technologies/rejuv-access-who-misses-out/), [Yoga during and after cancer treatment](https://onco.cc/technologies/yoga-cancer/)
- key papers: [Aaronson 1993: the EORTC QLQ-C30 quality of life questionnaire](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-aaronson-eortc-qlq-c30-jnci-1993/), [AFFIRM: increased survival with enzalutamide in prostate cancer after chemotherapy](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-scher-affirm-enzalutamide-nejm-2012/), [Burris 1997: gemcitabine becomes the first standard treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-burris-gemcitabine-pancreatic-jco-1997/), [Cella 1993: the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G) quality of life scale](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-cella-fact-g-jco-1993/), [PIVOT: follow-up of prostatectomy versus observation for early prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-wilt-pivot-prostatectomy-observation-nejm-2017/), [SWOG 9346: intermittent versus continuous androgen deprivation in metastatic prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-hussain-swog-9346-intermittent-androgen-deprivation-nejm-2013/), [TAX 327: docetaxel plus prednisone or mitoxantrone plus prednisone for advanced prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-tannock-tax-327-docetaxel-prednisone-nejm-2004/), [TRANSFORMER: bipolar androgen therapy versus enzalutamide in asymptomatic metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-denmeade-transformer-bipolar-androgen-therapy-jco-2021/), [USPSTF 2018: screening for prostate cancer, recommendation statement (grade C at 55 to 69, grade D at 70 and over)](https://onco.cc/key-papers/paper-uspstf-prostate-screening-jama-2018/)
- cancers: [Advanced-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma (stage III to IV)](https://onco.cc/cancers/advanced-stage-classical-hodgkin-lymphoma/), [Breast cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/breast-cancer/), [Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/dlbcl/), [Early-stage classical Hodgkin lymphoma (stage I to II)](https://onco.cc/cancers/early-stage-classical-hodgkin-lymphoma/), [Follicular lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/follicular-lymphoma/), [Hodgkin lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/hodgkin-lymphoma/), [Mantle cell lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/mantle-cell-lymphoma/), [Marginal zone lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/marginal-zone-lymphoma/), [Non-Hodgkin lymphoma (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/non-hodgkin-lymphoma/), [Peripheral T-cell lymphomas (including cutaneous T-cell lymphoma)](https://onco.cc/cancers/peripheral-t-cell-lymphoma/), [Prostate cancer](https://onco.cc/cancers/prostate/), [Relapsed and refractory classical Hodgkin lymphoma](https://onco.cc/cancers/relapsed-refractory-hodgkin-lymphoma/), [Skin cancer (all types)](https://onco.cc/cancers/skin-cancer/), [Waldenström macroglobulinaemia](https://onco.cc/cancers/waldenstrom/)
- trials: [AMPLE](https://onco.cc/trials/ample/), [PANOPTIMOX-PRODIGE 35](https://onco.cc/trials/panoptimox-prodige-35/), [PRODIGE 4 / ACCORD 11](https://onco.cc/trials/prodige-4-accord-11/)
- ideas: [Report death from other causes as an outcome of the prostate cancer service, split by deprivation and ethnicity](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-prostate-other-cause-mortality-as-a-reported-service-outcome/), [Take high-dose testosterone to phase 3, with progression-free survival through the second line as the primary endpoint](https://onco.cc/ideas/idea-prostate-bipolar-androgen-therapy-phase-3-on-pfs2/)
- people: [Nariaki Matsuura](https://onco.cc/people/nariaki-matsuura/)

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JSON: https://onco.cc/api/v1/entities/quality-of-life.json