Quality of life for actively treated patients and for palliative care treated patients with cancer

This short review analyzes the definition and measurement of quality of life in oncological patients, both during active antitumor therapy and during palliative care. Regarding the quality of life during curative treatments, the quality of life plays an important role both in routine clinical practice and in clinical trials that substantiate the therapeutic effect of an antineoplastic drug both through response rate and survival, and through the assessment of patients’ quality of life. We have described the main instruments for assessing quality of life and their scope of application in oncology. In conclusion, the quality of life is a particularly complex notion, no questionnaire being complex enough to assess it. New studies based on mathematical formulas or artificial intelligence are necessary for a more efficient assessment of the quality of life of oncological patients.