OBJECTIVES: 1) Investigating and comparing the quality of life of patients with Hodgkin’s Disease (HD) on different dimensions during active treatment and follow-up; 2) identifying longitudinal patterns of QoL dimensions during re-adaptation to normal life; 3) obtaining cross-cultural comparisons between the participating countries and study groups (EORTC and GHSG). BACKGROUND: Available trials addressed the negative long term sequelae in HD survivors but longitudinal data are lacking relating the outcome to various treatment-related variables and to the process of re-adaptation into normal life after end of treatment. METHODS: Within the randomised EORTC trial “H8” for clinical stage I-II HD which started in September 1993 patients receive a QoL questionnaire for completion at each follow-up visit during the first five years after the end of active therapy. The corresponding “HD8 study of the GHSG is employing the assessment of QoL during and after active treatment periods. Within both studies the EORTC QLQ C 30 is used for quality of life assessment incorporated in the H8/HD8 questionnaire for quality of life in HD which is addressing in addition the aspects of fatigue/malaise, sexuality, specific side effects, and retrospective evaluation of treatment. RESULTS: To date over 2500 questionnaires of 900 patients from both co-operative groups and 10 feasibility problems occurred in the multicentre setting. Patients reported mixed pattern of responses regarding the different domains of QoL, treatment related effects could be observed, but in general sever limitations in the perceived QoL during the first 3 years of follow-up were reported. Particularly levels of emotional strain and fatigue remained high after the end of active treatment. Women reported in general a lower QoL than men. CONCLUSION: QoL assessment within international multicentre trials in HD proved feasible within the two differently organised study groups of EORTC and GHSG. The applied H8/HD8 QoL questionnaire was able to detect distinct patterns of QoL in subgroups of patients.