History

The Quality of Life Department (QLD) was established at the EORTC Headquarters with the financial support of the European Community.

This project started in November 1993 initially for one year and was extended until May 1995.

The objectives of this project were threefold.

Firstly, to evaluate the importance of various factors that improve the QOL of cancer patients.

Secondly, to supervise the evaluation of QOL in selected cancer clinical trials.

Thirdly, to encourage physicians to pay greater attention to quality of life factors in the treatment of cancer by stimulating, enhancing and co-ordinating the evaluation of quality of life in cancer clinical trials.

The success of this two year pilot project led to the formal establishment of the QOL Department, which is now involved in all EORTC QOL activities

Andrew Bottomley takes over the Quality of Life Department

1^st Patient Reported Outcomes and Symptoms in Cancer Clinical Trials Conference, 27^th-29^th November 2009, Belgium

2^nd Patient Reported Outcomes and Symptoms in Cancer Clinical Trials Conference, 27^th-29^th September 2011, European Parliament, Belgium

3^rd Patient Reported Outcomes and Symptoms in Cancer Clinical Trials Conference Spring 2012, European Parliament Brussels, Belgium

4th Quality of Life, Symptom Research and Patient Reported Outcomes in Cancer Clinical Trials Conference, 20^th-21^st September 2017, Crowne Plaza Brussels, Belgium