QOL measurement scales for cancer patients: differentiating effects of age from effects of illness.

Increasingly, researchers studying the effects of medical treatments and health policy initiatives consider morbidity and not just mortality outcomes. Since older cancer patients are increasingly involved in chemotherapeutic and radiation therapy trials, it is important to know that commonly used quality of life measures are applicable to the aged as well as the younger population. Do older patients manifest poorer quality of life at various points in the disease course than do younger patients? We analyzed data from three studies on (1) newly diagnosed cancer patients, (2) patients on chemotherapy, and (3) advanced cancer patients regarding quality of life and compared the scores observed among older and younger individuals. After correcting for comorbidity and physical frailty, we found no quality of life differences between older and younger patients.