Abstract.
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 131I-lipiodol therapy, and subsequently after 1 and 3 months, in 20 patients treated with locoregional, intra-arterial 131I-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 131I-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 131I-lipiodol. The QLQ-C30 can be regarded as a feasible method for quality of life assessment in 131I-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.
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Received 23 March and in revised form 8 June 2002
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Brans, B., Lambert, B., De Beule, E. et al. Quality of life assessment in radionuclide therapy: a feasibility study of the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire in palliative 131I-lipiodol therapy. Eur J Nucl Med 29, 1374–1379 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-002-0918-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00259-002-0918-y