Health-Related Quality of Life in Colorectal Cancer
Summary
Colorectal cancer and its treatment can profoundly affect patients’ daily functioning, well-being and overall sense of health. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) encompasses physical symptoms such as pain, fatigue and bowel dysfunction, as well as emotional, social and role-functioning domains. Assessment typically combines generic instruments (for example EQ-5D or 15D) with disease-specific tools (such as the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-CR29 modules) to capture wide-ranging outcomes including global health status, symptom burden and functional capacity. HRQoL outcomes inform shared decision making, guide supportive-care interventions and serve as key end points in clinical trials, offering a patient-centred complement to traditional survival measures. Important determinants of HRQoL include cancer stage, treatment modality (surgery, systemic therapy, targeted or immunotherapy), symptom management, psychosocial support and sociodemographic factors. Advances in therapy have emphasised not only prolonging survival but also maintaining or improving HRQoL, reinforcing its role as a critical consideration in optimising personalised treatment strategies and health-policy planning worldwide.
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Health-Related Quality of Life in Colorectal Cancer publication trend
The graph below shows the total number of articles in health-related quality of life in colorectal cancer across all publications each year (not limited to Nature Index journals).
Technical terms
Health-related quality of life (HRQoL): A multidimensional concept capturing a patient’s perceived physical, emotional, social and functional well-being in relation to disease and treatment.
Patient-reported outcome measure (PROM): A standardised questionnaire completed by patients to assess health status or treatment impact without external interpretation.
Quality-adjusted life-year (QALY): A metric combining length and quality of life into a single value by weighting life-years with utility scores derived from patient preferences.
EORTC QLQ-C30: The core quality-of-life questionnaire developed by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, covering global health, functional domains and symptoms.
EQ-5D: A generic measure of health status comprising five dimensions (mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, anxiety/depression) and a visual analogue scale for self-rated health.
References
- Impacts of systemic treatments on health-related quality of life for patients with metastatic colorectal cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis. BMC Cancer (2024).
- Health-Related Quality of Life in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer Patients Treated with Curative Resection and/or Local Ablative Therapy or Systemic Therapy in the Finnish RAXO-Study. Cancers (2022).
- Role of Patient-Reported Outcomes in Clinical Trials in Metastatic Colorectal Cancer: A Scoping Review. Cancers (2023).
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