ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an approach to quantifying the quality-of-life burden of treatment and illustrates its application in pediatric oncology. The utility approach is a generic method for measuring health-related quality of life. It is derived from economic and decision theory and based on a well developed set of axioms for decision making under uncertainty. Methods for measuring quality of life in pediatric populations are less well developed than for adult populations. Furthermore, given the wide range of ages in those afflicted with childhood cancer, much of the patient population is too young to give meaningful answers with standard instruments. The utility approach to measuring health-related quality of life offers an advantage in that it can be used to quantify the quality-of-life burden of the treatment process. The chance board is a device that corresponds to the theory which underlies utility measurement. The theory prescribes the standard gamble approach as the method for measuring utility.
