Improvements in quality of life and disease-related symptoms in patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer treated with gefitinib

Most patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) experienced mild to severe disease-related symptoms including fatigue, loss of appetite, chest pain, dyspnoea, cough and hemoptysis. These symptoms hamper the patients’ ability to carry out daily activity and the deteriorating of disease-related symptoms is often associated with poor performance status, which may decrease the treatment options for patients. Furthermore, several studies have shown that quality of life (QoL) before treatment is associated with survival of patients.~ 1,2 Therefore, QoL and symptom improvement is an important treatment goal for advanced NSCLC.