European Organisation for Research and Treatment Quality of Life (EORTC QLQ C-30)
What It Measures
The EORTC QLQ-C30 measures quality of life in people with cancer, covering both how the disease affects functioning and what symptoms are doing to daily life. It is the core questionnaire in a family of instruments, so it applies across cancer types rather than one diagnosis.
Thirty questions produce fifteen separate scores. Five functioning scales cover physical, role, emotional, cognitive, and social functioning. Three symptom scales cover fatigue, pain, and nausea and vomiting. Six single items cover shortness of breath, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, diarrhoea, and the financial impact of illness. A global health and quality of life scale sits alongside them. Every score runs 0 to 100, but the direction differs: higher is better on functioning, worse on symptoms.
Further Reading
Additional Notes
Licensing Notes: Registration is required before use, through https://qol.eortc.org. Academic and non-commercial use is generally free; commercial use, including industry-sponsored trials, carries a fee. The scoring manual is available free from the EORTC site.
Learn More: Version matters when comparing scores. Version 3.0 is current and uses four-point scales for the first five items; version 2.0 used a different format for those items.
