[Evaluation in clinical practice of the quality of life of patients with VADS cancer: an ethical justification or a fad?].

Now that the treatment of head and neck cancer has been perfectly standardized and the complications and sequelae are well known, many authors have started to investigate health-related quality of life (QoL). The use of generic and cancer-specific QoL instruments remains limited to the field of research, but can this approach be transposed to clinical oncology? This study was designed to answer this question by identifying the ethical problems related to QoL assessment. The methodology used is based on a questionnaire survey of a cohort of 40 volunteer patients, conducted some time after their initial treatment in order to optimally assess their expectations and questions in relation to these aspects. The validity of the instrumental approach cannot be guaranteed due to conceptual limits, and the sociocultural level and cognitive state of the target population. A more subtle approach to QoL assessment in routine clinical practice would consist of a mixed approach harmoniously combining quantitative and qualitative aspects based on questionnaire and interview.