BACKGROUNDTo evaluate the quality of life (QoL) of lung cancer patients and to investigate the differences in QoL with respect to social and medical characteristics.

METHODSStructured questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13) were used in 106 consecutive lung cancer patients for data collection during January 1, 2002 to December 31, 2002. The t test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to compare the differences in QoL at a 5% level of significance.

RESULTSThe QoL of lung cancer patients were worse than reference value. The QoL of young, male and married patient groups was better than that in old, female and single groups. The QoL in patients with lower education or income was worse than that in patients with high education and income. Small cell lung cancer patients showed poorer QoL than non-small cell lung cancer patients did. The locally advanced or metastatic patients had worse QoL. All the kinds of treatments could worsen the QoL, however, the patients receiving surgical treatment had best QoL.

CONCLUSIONSThe results suggest that the establishment of QoL judgment standard in Chinese lung cancer patients might be useful for clinicians, researchers and policy-makers.