Disease Specific Quality of Life in Keratinocyte Cancer; The development and use of the BaSQoL questionnaire

Keratinocyte cancer is the collective name of the two most common forms of skin cancer, namely basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma. This dissertation describes how we have developed a questionnaire to measure disease-specific quality of life in people with keratinocyte cancer. We also extensively tested the questionnaire (named BaSQoL), translated it into English, tested the English version and used it to measure the impact of keratinocyte cancer on the quality of life of patients. These studies show that most patients experience little or no impact of skin cancer on disease-specific quality of life. Factors associated with a poorer quality of life are younger age, shorter time since diagnosis, being female and having facial skin cancer. Patients with squamous cell carcinoma have a slightly worse disease-specific quality of life. Patients who are dissatisfied with the provided information also have more impact on disease-specific quality of life. A study on the effect of three different treatments for skin cancer (excision, Mohs surgery and radiotherapy) showed no differences when comparing the disease-specific quality of life, patient satisfaction and cosmetic results. A comparison with a sample from the general population showed that patients with keratinocyte cancer have, on average, a better overall quality of life and less pain.