Efficient assessment of the most important symptoms in advanced prostate cancer: the NCCN/FACT-P Symptom Index.
BACKGROUND
Owing to the spectrum of symptoms, side effects, and concerns in clinically advanced prostate cancer (PC), effective symptom assessment is imperative. In line with recent regulatory guidance on the development of patient-reported outcomes, we undertook a multistep/multistudy approach to develop and test a new symptom index (NCCN FACT-Prostate Symptom Index-17 that can be used to examine the effectiveness of noncurative treatments in advanced PC.


METHODS
This included significant input from two waves of expert medical providers (n=66 and 11, respectively) and two waves of patient engagement and testing (n=50 and 24, respectively). The resulting 17-item symptom index for advanced PC was then divided into sets or categories based on whether the symptoms are predominantly disease or treatment related.


RESULTS
Preliminary reliability estimates suggest good internal consistency (α=0.86) and relationships with expected outside validity criteria are moderate to strong.


CONCLUSIONS
This new tool may help clinicians and researchers quickly target and measure important symptoms and concerns in advanced PC, leading to increased knowledge of treatment effectiveness of noncurative therapies and improvements in the quality of patient care. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Victorson
David E
DE
Department of Medical Social Sciences, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago, IL, USA. d-victorson@northwestern.edu
Beaumont
Jennifer L
JL
Rosenbloom
Sarah K
SK
Shevrin
Daniel
D
Cella
David
D
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005221:Fatigue; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010146:Pain; D011471:Prostatic Neoplasms / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014555:Urination Disorders; D015431:Weight Loss