Current status of health outcome assessment of medical treatment in breast cancer

Recent research has shown the importance of the patient’s point of view on the goals of medical care, and now health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) has become an important endpoint of clinical studies. However, as HR-QOL is essentially a subjective, personal concept determined from the viewpoint of the patient, it is fundamentally important to understand the concept and use the HR-QOL assessment, to express both the subjective and qualitative concept of HR-QOL in an objective and quantitative way that meets the patient’s true needs, and also to obtain high-quality information about HR-QOL. In this article, we describe the concept of HR-QOL, the purpose of HR-QOL measurement, the approach to the HR-QOL assessment, instruments used in the measurement of HR-QOL, and general principles of HR-QOL measurements. We also review the current status of HR-QOL assessment of medical treatment in breast cancer.