ABSTRACT
Advances in medical science and technology have led to the long-term survival of many children with previously fatal malignancies. Ivan and Glazer (1994) noted that the Pediatric Oncology Group (POG), a national childhood cancer clinical trials consortium, reported a twofold to threefold increase in survival In eight often diagnostic categories that POG has followed since the mid-1970s. Although the major outcome variables used in evaluating the effectiveness of medical management of childhood cancers have traditionally been biological ones, increased attention has recently been directed to the desirability of including the assessment of quality of life (QOL) in evaluations of treatment protocols in pediatric oncology (Boggs, Graham-Pole, & Miller, 1991; Mulhern et al., 1989).
