In reply to Mauer et al. “Statistical methodology is crucial in prognostic factor-analysis of health-related quality of life”

Excerpt

I would like to thank Dr. Mauer and researchers from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) [ 1] for their important comments on our recent publication regarding health-related quality of life (QOL) in gastric cancer patients treated with first-line chemotherapy [ 2]. They express their opinion that the modeling strategy lacked clear selection criteria and validation. Clearly our analysis, which was conducted in a single center on a relatively small number of patients, did not establish a definitive causal relationship between baseline QOL and survival. However, there is agreement that QOL provides an assessment of patient well-being as well as of cancer survival [ 3]. …