A challenge to overcome: the maintenance of the global quality of life in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer

ABSTRACT Introduction: The global quality of life (QoL) in patients with advanced or metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is a major clinical problem. Often the QoL’s data from clinical trials do not reflect the real life. Further improvements are needed to get reproducible methods to assess patients’ QoL within oncology units in daily clinical practice. Areas covered: This review explored QoL’s aspects of NSCLC patients through a collection of articles published in the last five years on PubMed. The aim was to highlight the importance of QoL and its management in these patients. Expert commentary: A better interpretation of clinical trials’ results is necessary, to identify more adequately the risks/benefits profile of the chosen treatment. The introduction of the early palliative care (EPC) and the conduction of studies focused on survival objectives as well as on QoL might be a valuable help to improve NSCLC management.