Comparison of the practical usefulness of the EORTC QLQ-C15 PAL and QLQ-C30 questionnaires on the quality of life of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma: estimation – preliminary study report

Background. There are several quality of life measuring questionnaires designed for patients with cancer and who are subjected to palliative therapy. The QLQ-C30 questionnaire consists of 30 questions referring to different aspects of the patient’s life; the abridged QLQ-C15 PAL questionnaire consists of half of them.

Objectives. The aim of the study was to find out whether or not the information acquired from 15 questions subtracted from the questionnaire QLQ-C30 in the process of designing its shortened version, the QLQ-C15 PAL , delivers additional practical useful information

about the quality of life of patients with pancreas cancers for the purpose of palliative care.

Material and methods. A group of 38 patients with advanced stage pancreas adenocarcinoma subjected to palliative care outside hospitals in the Lower Silesia region of Poland in the years 2010–2011 was surveyed using the Polish translation of the QLQ-C30 questionnaire. The answers to 15 questions absent from the QLQ-C15 PAL questionnaire were analyzed separately.

Results. The questions removed from QLQ-C30 questionnaire in order to build up the QLQ-C15 PAL questionnaire are those which further increased the knowledge about a patient’s signs and symptoms or indicate a graver status of the patient. The QLQ-C15 PAL

questionnaire lacks the block of questions that the QLQ-C30 questionnaire asks about the interference of the patient’s physical condition or medical treatment with family life, social activities and financial status.

Conclusions. The questions present in QLQ-C15 PAL questionnaire provide crude but complete information about the basic factors influencing a patient’s quality of life that are enough for a palliative care physician to begin with when collecting or recollecting a medical

history and determining or reviewing the physical status of the patient in order to adjust palliative treatment.