Summary The extent to which a doctor or health professional can make a valid assessment of a patient's quality of life, anxiety and depression was investigated in a series of cancer patients. Doctors and patients filled out the same forms, viz. the Karnofsky, Spitzer, Linear Analogue Self Assessment Scales and a series of simple scales designed for this study, at the same time. Correlations between the two sets of scores were poor, suggesting that the doctors could not accurately determine what the patients felt. A further study examining the reproducibility of these scales demonstrated considerable variability in results between different doctors. It is concluded that if a reliable and consistent method of measuring quality of life in cancer patients is required, it must come from the patients themselves and not from their doctors and nurses.

Objective-To compare responses of patients with cancer with those of a matched control group, cancer specialists, general practitioners, and cancer nurses in assessing personal cost-benefit of chemotherapy.Design-Prospective study of consecutively recruited patients with cancer and other groups by questionnaire; half of the patients received the questionnaire again three months after starting treatment.Setting-A medical oncology ward of a London teaching hospital.

A sizeable percentage of patients receiving conventional treatments for cancer also use complementary therapies. Patient satisfaction with complementary therapies, other than dietary therapies, was high even without the hoped for anticancer effect. Patients reported psychological benefits such as hope and optimism.

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