Perception of quality of life by patients, partners and treating physicians

The objective of the study was to determine possible differences in percept ion of quality of life (QoL) between patients with metastatic breast or pro state cancer, their partners, and the treating physician. Patients with met astatic breast cancer (n = 71), and metastatic prostate cancer (n = 29), a partner, and the physician each completed the same QoL questionnaire indica ting how they perceived the patient's QoL. The European organization for re search and treatment of cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 questionnaire was used to as sess patients with breast cancer and the modified prostate cancer specific quality of life instrument (PROSQOLI) for patients with prostate cancer. Th ere was reasonable agreement in mean scores between patients, and physician s or partners, for many domains of QoL; however, there was substantial disc ordance between scores when considering individual patients. For patients w ith metastatic breast cancer, physicians systematically underestimated over all QoL (p = 0.0002). social functioning (p = 0.001). and role functioning (p = 0.008), while partners showed better agreement. With prostate cancer p hysicians tended to underestimate pain, while mean scores for spouses were more concordant. There is substantial variability between ratings of QoL by physicians or partners, as compared to patient ratings. Medical decisions should be based on information about QoL provided by patients using validat ed methods.