HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE IN CHILDHOOD CANCER

描述（申请人描述）迫切需要

DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description) There is a critical need for the development of valid and useful measures of health-related quality of life (HRQL) for children with cancer. The ever-increasing survival rates in pediatric oncology, presently approaching 70 percent overall, demand that priorities be modified to not only seek cure but to also focus close attention on the HRQL costs of cure. Key elements of the cost of cure include the morbidity associated with short-term and long-term toxicities, and the morbidity associated with the sequelae of the disease itself. A critical issue in designing new clinical trials for childhood cancer is how to reduce the morbidity of treatment without compromising survival. These morbidities can now be quantified objectively with newly emerging measures of HRQL. Measuring HRQL of patients during the process of treatment would provide information helpful to patients, families, and health-care providers faced with difficult decisions about treatment alternatives. Similarly, HRQL information on long-term survivors would help to inform decision-making at the time of diagnosis. However, further substantive progress requires the identification, acceptance, and use of validated HRQL measures. The primary aim of the proposed international scientific workshop, "Assessing Health-Related Quality of Life in Childhood Cancer," is to advance the accumulation and exchange of information on the measurement of HRQL in the context of cancer during childhood. Each of six specific objectives of the workshop will be addressed in a separate session by, 3 to 5 invited speakers chosen on the basis of submitted abstracts. In addition, invited discussants will provide a integrative summary of the field and define potential future directions to the participants on the final day. All presentations will be published in full manuscript format as a supplement to the International Journal of Cancer.