The association between health-related quality of life and achievement of personalized symptom goal

Purpose The aim of study was to explore the potential association between patient’s self-reported physical symptom management goals as personalized symptom goal (PSGs) and health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in cancer patients. The secondary outcome was to investigate the relationship between number of physical symptoms not achieving the PSGs and HRQOL in cancer patients. Methods This single-center prospective observational study comprised 140 consecutive outpatients. We evaluated the PSGs and HRQOL using the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–General (FACT-G). Patients were administered a self-report questionnaire, including reports on their physical symptom intensity and PSGs using Edmonton Symptom Assessment System-revised (ESAS-r) scores. We investigated the correlation between PSGs achievement (ESAS-r score ≤ PSG score) and FACT-G total scores, and relationship between and number of physical symptoms not achieving the PSGs (ESAS-r score > PSG score) and FACT-G total scores. Results The patients who did not achieve PSGs of pain, tiredness, lack of appetite, and shortness of breath had a lower FACT-G total score ( p