Assessing quality of life on the day of chemotherapy administration underestimates patients’ true symptom burden

Abstract

Our results indicate that patients experience most severe QOL impairments in the week following chemotherapy administration. This is a period that is usually not covered by QOL assessments in chemotherapy trials which may result in underestimation of true treatment burden. Our findings suggest to conduct QOL assessments not only event- or time-driven, but to rely on specific hypotheses on symptom and functioning trajectories.