Kidney Cancer Quality of Life Statistics and Results

The quality of your life during cancer treatment is extremely important, to you and to us. Quality of life determines how well you are able to function—physically, mentally and emotionally—and how good you feel during treatment.

Yet, patients who are undergoing aggressive cancer therapy often experience deterioration in their quality of life. Fatigue, nausea, insomnia and other treatment-related symptoms can take their toll on how you feel and function.

At CTCA, we combine a variety of conventional and complementary treatments to help you maintain your quality of life during the most aggressive treatment. Statistics show that treatment-related symptoms in CTCA patients often do not worsen and may even decrease during the first three months of therapy.

Note: In this case, no change or a decrease in symptom levels is better.

The above graph reflects results of 29 kidney cancer patients treated at Cancer Treatment Centers of America® between January 2001 and December 2008. The estimated functioning and symptom levels were based on a small sample of 29 available kidney cancer patients at three months and therefore are subject to a high degree of variation. As a result, these estimates may not be entirely replicated in the future when a larger CTCA sample is available. A change of 10 to 20 points represents a moderate change. A change greater than 20 points represents a clinically significant change from the patient's perspective.

This graph shows the change in symptom levels experienced by a group of 29 kidney cancer patients who were treated at CTCA between January 2001 and December 2008. CTCA patients receive nutritional, spiritual, physical, naturopathic, and emotional support while undergoing aggressive chemotherapy. During their first three months of treatment, these patients' nausea, pain, dyspnea, constipation, and diarrhea did not significantly increase. However, these patients did experience a moderate deterioration in fatigue and loss of appetite.

To our knowledge, CTCA is the only network of cancer hospitals in the nation that incorporates quality of life measurements into its routine clinical program. We track each patient's ability to perform the basic activities of daily living. We ask how satisfied they are with their lives, and we evaluate their overall sense of well-being. The knowledge we gain enables our care teams to monitor and address specific cancer related symptoms such as fatigue, insomnia, and pain.

CTCA invites each patient to participate in quality of life assessments both before and during treatment. We use the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30), which is one of the most reliable quality of life questionnaires in cancer research, and the Powers/Ferrans QLI instrument, which measures satisfaction with the aspects of life the individual values.

More: Kidney Cancer Survival Statistics and Results / Kidney Cancer Patient Loyalty / Speed of Care / Patient Testimonial