European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General for the Measurement of Quality of Life in Colorectal Cancer Patients who Received Adjuvant Chemotherapy: A Comparison

ABSTRACT Purpose Quality of life (QOL) was measured using the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30 (QLQ-C30) and Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General (FACT-G) in colorectal cancer patients who received adjuvant chemotherapy with oral uracil/tegafur plus leucovorin, and two QOL measurements were compared. Methods QOL was assessed prospectively at baseline (pretreatment) and at 5-week intervals during treatment, using QLQ-C30 and FACT-G, and were compared with reference to the corresponding scales. Results The study group comprised 58 men and 41 women, with a mean age of 65 years (range, 30 to 80). The disease stage was stage II in 51 patients and stage III in 48. The 99 patients had received a total of 444 treatment cycles (median, 5 cycles; range, 0.1 to 5 cycles). The most common type of toxicity was fatigue. However, the incidence of grade 3 or 4 fatigue was very low. The most common type of hematological toxicity was anemia, which was generally mild. Six patients had grade 3 diarrhea and 6 had grade 3 anorexia. QOL was not evaluated either before or after treatment in 5 of the 99 enrolled patients; both baseline and post-treatment evaluations were available for the other 94 patients. Of 94 patients, the numbers of patients who completed the QOL questionnaires were 90 (96%) at baseline, and 87 (93%), 85 (90%), 88 (94%), 84 (89%), and 81 (86%), consecutively. The mean number of evaluations per patient was 6.2 (range, 3-7). The post-treatment assessments changed significantly from the baseline values and favored post-treatment for all scales except social well-being of the FACT-G. All scales except social well-being in patients with Grade 0-1 toxicities were better than those with Grade 2-3 toxicities. Social well-being in patients with Grade 2-3 toxicities were worse than those with Grade 0-1. When corresponding scales between the two QOL questionnaires were compared, a high correlation for physical domain or emotional domain was found. However, no correlation was noticed for the social domain. Conclusion The social domain of the two QOL questionnaires may evaluate different aspects of QOL each other. Disclosure All authors have declared no conflicts of interest.