[Interventions to improve quality of life in oncological patients]

The assessment of quality of life is a central aspect in the current debate in support groups, certified cancer centres, benefit assessment, and also in palliative care. Accordingly, quality of life has become an essential part of clinical trials for more than two decades. But most of the time results are presented in a descriptive manner without any concrete therapeutic consequences for the improvement of quality of life. Likewise, there are no uniform recommendations for considering quality of life data in the decision-making process. Therefore, a guide with recommendations for the assessment of quality of life in trials has been developed. Its implementation is illustrated by a complex intervention for a targeted diagnosis and therapy of quality of life in patients with breast cancer or colorectal cancer. The basis is a standardised quality of life assessment and the presentation of results in an intelligible fashion as well as the close collaboration of all healthcare providers to create regional network structures for the targeted support of patients in both the inpatient and outpatient sector.