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Table 1 Operational definitions of the disease conditions for the three target groups

From: Validation of the European Oncology toolkit for the self-assessment of Quality of Life (EUonQoL-Kit) in cancer patients and survivors: study protocol of a pan European survey

Target group

Disease condition definition

Examples

A)

Patients in active treatment

Patients undergoing or having recently completed:

• Curative treatment for early-stage cancers

• Non-curative treatment for advanced/metastatic cancers, including disease controlling/life prolonging tumour-directed treatment (e.g., patients with metastatic disease receiving chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or targeted agents)

• Stage 1–2 breast cancer during or up to 3 months following radiotherapy, surgery, or systemic treatments

• Stage 4 breast cancer on 1st line chemotherapy

• Lung cancer on immunotherapy

B)

Survivors

Patients who are disease-free without evidence of active cancer, and at least one year off active treatment (except for long-term adjuvant hormonotherapy)

• Breast cancer treated with surgery and adjuvant radiotherapy three years ago and on 10 years of hormonal treatment

C)

Patients in palliative care

Patients with advanced cancers who meet at least one of the following criteria:

• Projected prognosis < 12 months and ECOG* ≥ 2

• Referred to a specialist palliative care team for symptom control

• Receiving non-curative systemic treatment or radiotherapy purely for symptom control

• Patients with castrate-resistant prostate cancer, progressed through systemic treatment options referred for radiotherapy for bone pain

• Metastatic breast cancer patient on 5th-line systemic treatment

  1. *ECOG (Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group) performance status [25]