Assessing Quality of Life in Oncology Clinical Practice: A Review of Barriers and Critical Success Factors

Formal assessment of patients’ health-related quality of life (QOL) is now an important component of many clinical trials. Data from these trials have improved our understanding of the effects of disease and its treatment. QOL studies historically have been conducted with the expectation that, in time, health care providers would routinely incorporate measurement of QOL into clinical practice. However, despite the utility of health status measures, QOL assessment is not widely used in the clinical practice setting [1–7]. QOL assessment, as a clinical tool, has potential to guide treatment planning and decision making. However, this potential will never be realized unless QOL assessment is integrated into practice and embraced as an integral component of care. This article reviews the literature on clinical application of QOL assessment in the oncology setting. We discuss some of the barriers to assessing QOL in oncology practice and identify critical success factors for overcoming these barriers.