'Attention to quality-of-life issues and the integration of symptom management is becoming an essential component of cancer care',says Dr Jamie Von Roenn from Northwestern University, Chicago, US. She adds that symptom management in patients with cancer should never be reserved for the end of life. Physicians need to look at common symptoms that are not necessarily related to cancer (such as depression) which when treated, obviously improve quality of life (QOL) whether a patient's disease is curable or not. Dr Von Roenn spoke at a press conference at the 37th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology [San Francisco, US; May 2001], where several studies examining patients' QOL during cancer treatment were reported.