OBJECTIVES: While disease-specific patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are preferable, appropriately validated generic PROMs can also gather important insights not otherwise captured in disease-specific PROMs. Our aim is to identify and describe the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) PROMs which have evidence of reliability and validity among women with breast cancer for potential use in patients treated for breast cancer.
METHODS: A systematic literature review was conducted using PubMed, Embase, and PsycINFO databases from 01/09-08/19 to identify articles that contain psychometric properties (e.g. reliability, validity) of HRQoL PROMs used in patients with breast cancer (excluding surgery). English-language publications that reported psychometric properties of HRQoL PROMs were included.
RESULTS: A total of 613 unique records were identified. Of the 130 full-text articles reviewed, 80 presented psychometric data for PROMs used in breast cancer, including survivors. A total of 34 papers presented breast-cancer-specific PROMs (e.g. EORTC QLQ-BR23) and are reported elsewhere. This abstract focuses on the 22 papers that described psychometric properties of 20 non-breast cancer-specific HRQoL PROMs. Six of the PROMs were generic HRQoL measures (e.g. SF-12, EQ-5D, WHOQOL). The majority of the PROMs (14/20) were cancer-specific and focused on general HRQoL (e.g. Cancer Behavior Inventory), symptom inventories (e.g. PRO-CTCAE), or measured individual symptoms, concepts, or treatment-related toxicities (e.g. alopecia, anxiety, cognitive function). All identified generic measures demonstrated adequate reliability (e.g. test-retest, internal consistency), except for the SF-12; all demonstrated acceptable validity. Similarly, adequate reliability data was identified in 11/14 cancer-specific PROMs. Only 2 of 14 cancer-specific PROMs did not have specific validity data.
CONCLUSIONS: Evidence of both reliability and validity is necessary when choosing a PROM. Most, but not all, of the identified non-breast-cancer-specific HRQoL PROMs have evidence of reliability and validity among patients with breast cancer. These PROMs can help provide additional insight to patients experience with treatment.
