ABSTRACT
This chapter emphasizes health-related quality of life (HQL) asssessment in cancer clinical trials conducted by cooperative groups. Cooperative groups are organizations comprised of hospitals, Community Clinical Oncology Programs (CCOPs), other special programs such as Urological Clinical Oncology Programs (UCOPS), and hundreds of physicians, oncology nurses, and data managers around the country. These groups design and conduct studies to evaluate treatments for cancer; the trials are funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI). There are a number of cooperative groups: for example, the Southwest Oncology Group (SWOG), Eastern Oncology Group (ECOG), Cancer and Leukemia Group-B (CALG-B), and the National Surgical Adjuvant Breast and Bowel Project (NSABP). The HQL assessment procedures described in this chapter reflect those followed by SWOG, but the conceptual approach is consistent with HQL assessment in other cooperative groups.
