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This page is general information about a research instrument, not medical advice and not a substitute for the EORTC scoring manual.
Short answer
The EORTC QLQ-C30 is a 30-item questionnaire from the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group that measures the quality of life of people with cancer. It yields nine multi-item scales and six single items, and it is a copyrighted instrument: written, prior consent of the EORTC Quality of Life Group is required to use it. Scores are linear transformations to 0-100.
Definition and scope: the EORTC QLQ-C30 full form
QLQ-C30 stands for Quality of Life Questionnaire, Core 30. It was described by Aaronson and colleagues in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in 1993 (PubMed 8433390) as a cancer-specific core questionnaire, tested in 305 patients with lung cancer in 13 countries. It takes about 11 minutes to complete. The Quality of Life Group’s licence terms refer to the QLQ-C30 and its associated modules, such as the QLQ-BR23 breast cancer module. The instrument is a patient-reported outcome measure, a type of clinical outcome assessment.
EORTC QLQ-C30 domains and scales
According to the 1993 validation paper, the QLQ-C30 has nine multi-item scales: five functional scales (physical, role, cognitive, emotional, social), three symptom scales (fatigue, pain, nausea and vomiting) and a global health status/quality of life scale, plus several single-item symptom measures. The item map below follows the scoring specification published in the Medical Informatics Initiative (Germany) FHIR implementation guide for PROMs (read 2026-11-07).
| Scale | Type | Items |
|---|---|---|
| Physical functioning (PF) | Functional | Q1-Q5 |
| Role functioning (RF) | Functional | Q6-Q7 |
| Emotional functioning (EF) | Functional | Q21-Q24 |
| Cognitive functioning (CF) | Functional | Q20, Q25 |
| Social functioning (SF) | Functional | Q26-Q27 |
| Fatigue (FA) | Symptom | Q10, Q12, Q18 |
| Nausea and vomiting (NV) | Symptom | Q14-Q15 |
| Pain (PA) | Symptom | Q9, Q19 |
| Dyspnoea, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, diarrhoea, financial difficulties | Single-item symptom | Q8, Q11, Q13, Q16, Q17, Q28 |
| Global health status / quality of life (QL) | Global | Q29-Q30 (7-point response) |
Counting the rows gives 15 functional items, 7 multi-item symptom items, 6 single items and 2 global items: 30 in all.
EORTC QLQ-C30 scoring
The method below is the one printed in the implementation guide above; the full rules are in the EORTC Quality of Life Group scoring manual, which is part of what the licence supplies.
- Compute the raw score as the mean of the items in the scale.
- Transform linearly to 0-100. Functional scales: (1 – (raw – 1) / 3) x 100. Symptom scales and single items: ((raw – 1) / 3) x 100. Global health status: ((raw – 1) / 6) x 100.
- If at least 50% of a scale’s items were answered, replace missing items with the mean of the answered items; otherwise the scale is not scored.
Worked example (arithmetic only, not patient data)
Suppose a respondent answers the five physical functioning items (Q1-Q5) with 1, 2, 1, 1, 2. The raw score is 7 / 5 = 1.4, so the scale score is (1 – 0.4 / 3) x 100 = 86.7. If the fatigue items (Q10, Q12, Q18) are answered 2, 3, 2, the raw score is 2.33 and the scale score is (1.33 / 3) x 100 = 44.4. If the two global items are answered 5 and 6, the raw score is 5.5 and the score is (4.5 / 6) x 100 = 75.
Interpreting the direction of scores
A higher score on a functional scale or on global health status means better functioning or quality of life; a higher score on a symptom scale or single symptom item means more symptom burden. The EORTC manual for clinical practice (Wintner and colleagues, European Journal of Cancer 2016;68:73-81) describes interpreting scores against a patient’s own earlier assessments, against reference populations, or against thresholds for clinical importance, and noted at that date that the Quality of Life Group was funding work to develop such thresholds for all QLQ-C30 scales.
EORTC QLQ-C30 PDF, download and licence
The QLQ-C30 and its modules are copyrighted instruments with all rights reserved. The EORTC Quality of Life Group’s commercial-user terms (page dated 2018-09-11, read 2026-11-07) state that written, prior consent is required, given through a signed User Agreement. For that page’s commercial arrangement, the fee covers the questionnaire, the modules for the trial, the scoring manual and module scoring, and all languages in the library, with translation certificates on request. The information requested for the agreement includes protocol number, study title, number of patients, signatory, whether the study is electronic (ePRO), the modules and the languages. The page describes the terms for commercial users.
Study-planning checklist
- Confirm which modules (for example QLQ-BR23) and languages the protocol needs before requesting consent.
- If the questionnaire will be administered on a device, state it at the outset: the commercial terms ask whether the study uses ePRO and contain a permission clause for electronic migration.
- Obtain the scoring manual and write the 50% missing-data rule and score direction into the statistical analysis plan.
- For selecting and validating a patient-reported measure more generally, see choosing and validating a PROM; for the psychometric terms used in validation papers, see reliability vs validity; for how oncology trials define their other endpoints, see RECIST endpoints in NCTN oncology trials.
Common misunderstandings
- “A higher score is always better.” Not so: it is better on functional and global scales and worse on symptom scales.
- “A PDF found online is free to use.” The instrument is copyrighted, and the Quality of Life Group requires written prior consent.
- “Every scale reached the same reliability.” In the original 305-patient study, role functioning was the only scale that did not reach a Cronbach alpha of 0.70.
FAQ
What is the EORTC QLQ-C30 full form?
European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire, Core 30.
What domains does the EORTC QLQ-C30 cover?
Five functional scales, three symptom scales, global health status/quality of life and six single symptom or financial items.
How do I interpret EORTC QLQ-C30 scores?
Scores run 0-100; direction depends on scale type, and the EORTC manual describes comparison with earlier assessments, reference populations or thresholds for clinical importance.
Where do I get the questionnaire?
From the EORTC Quality of Life Group, under its User Agreement; see the licence section above.
Sources
- Aaronson NK et al. The EORTC QLQ-C30. J Natl Cancer Inst 1993;85(5):365-376. PubMed 8433390 (read 2026-11-07).
- EORTC Quality of Life Group, commercial-user terms and conditions, qol.eortc.org/terms-conditions/commercial-user/ (read 2026-11-07).
- Medical Informatics Initiative, PROMs implementation guide, EORTC QLQ-C30 scoring, build.fhir.org/ig/medizininformatik-initiative/kerndatensatzmodul-proms/en/eortc-qlq-c30-scoring.html (read 2026-11-07).
- Wintner LM et al. Eur J Cancer 2016;68:73-81.
