Quality of life assessment in radionuclide therapy:: a feasibility study of the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire in palliative 131I-lipiodol therapy

The good tolerance of radionuclide therapy has frequently been proposed as a major advantage. This study explored the feasibility of using the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire in palliative iodine-131 lipiodol therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma. Questionnaires were completed during interviews in which all symptoms, co-morbidity and medication were assessed at baseline within 1 week before I-131-lipiodol therapy, and subsequently after 1 and 3 months, in 20 patients treated with locoregional, intra-arterial I-131-lipiodol therapy with or without cisplatin. Principal observations were that (1) a number of important scales, i.e. overall quality of life, physical functioning and pain, worsened between 0 and 3 months after I-131-lipiodol therapy, irrespective of tumour response, and (2) the occurrence of clinical side-effects was associated with a negative impact on quality of life and physical functioning 1 and 3 months after I-131-lipiodol. The QLQ-C30 can be regarded as a feasible method for quality of life assessment in I-131-lipiodol therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma and possibly in other radionuclide therapies. These observations should be related to the impact of other treatment modalities on quality of life.