OBJECTIVES: Our aims were to investigate the association between baseline health-related quality of life (HRQOL) scores of the EORTC QLQ-C30 and survival. METHODS: We analyzed data from pooled, randomized, controlled trials from National Cancer Institute Canada Clinical Trials Group started between 1991 and 2004, which included survival data from 3635 patients with 8 different cancer sites. Sociodemographic variables were sex (men vs. women) and age ( 60 vs. > 60), and clinical variables were WHO performance status (0-1 vs. 2-3) and distant metastases (no vs. yes). The prognostic significance of sociodemographic and clinical variables and the 15 QLQ-C30 scales were assessed with Cox proportional hazard models stratified for cancer site. RESULTS: In the stratified multivariate model including sociodemographic, clinical, and HRQOL data, the HRQOL parameters of global QOL/health status (hazard ratio [HR] 1.097, 95% CI 1.05- 1.14; p<.0001), physical function (0.94, 0.897-0.98; p=0.0010), dyspnoea (1.04, 1.00-1.07; p=0.0120), and appetite loss (1.06, 1.03-1.09; p<.0001) provided significant prognostic information in addition to the sociodemographic and clinical variables. The gain in predictive accuracy of prognosis of overall survival of the four HRQOL parameters over the sociodemographic and clinical characteristics was 3% (Harrell’s C-index for sociodemographic and clinical variables = 0.69, and for sociodemographic, clinical, and HRQOL variables = 0.71). The model developed by Quinten et al. 2009 included pain but this was not found to be statistically significant in our model. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that HRQOL scales of the EORTC QLQ-C30 provide prognostic information in addition to that of sociodemographic and clinical measures. This replicates previous findings (Quinten et al., 2009) showing that HRQOL data can help to predict survival in patients with cancer, although the specific HRQOL domains that are predictive may vary. The impact of these findings for clinical management (e.g., in stratification for clinical trials entry or treatment decision making) need additional study.