Caren van Roekel

294 Chapter 11 FIGURE 2. Quality of life in patients treated with 166 Ho-radioembolization. GHS – Global Health Status (a score of 100 indicates excellent quality of life) Chapter 3 describes the quality of life in 50 patients treated with 166 Ho- radioembolization. Two questionnaires, the EORTC QLQ-C30 and the QLQ- LMC21 were used to evaluate quality of life at baseline, 1 week, 6 weeks and at 6, 9 and 12 months after treatment. The questionnaires comprised of many different aspects, such as symptoms (e.g. pain, nausea, fatigue) and functioning scales (e.g. physical functioning, social functioning). The global health status was a general indicator of the quality of life. Quality of life was not significantly affected over time. However, in almost all scales, a decline in quality of life and a rise of symptomatology was seen at one week after treatment. This is most likely due to the post-embolization syndrome, which occurs shortly after treatment and is self-limiting (which explains the normalization after one month).