title: Minimal clinically meaningful differences for the EORTC QLQ-C30 and EORTC QLQ-BN20 scales in brain cancer patients.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We aimed to determine the smallest changes in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) scores in the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire core 30 and the Brain Cancer Module (QLQ-BN20), which could be considered as clinically meaningful in brain cancer patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  World Health Organisation performance status (PS) and mini-mental state examination (MMSE) were used as clinical anchors appropriate to related subscales to determine the minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) in HRQoL change scores (range 0-100) in the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20. A threshold of 0.2 standard deviation (SD) (small effect) was used to exclude anchor-based MCID estimates considered too small to inform interpretation.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Based on PS, our findings support the following integer estimates of the MCID for improvement and deterioration, respectively: physical (6, 9), role (14, 12), and cognitive functioning (8, 8); global health status (7, 4*), fatigue (12, 9), and motor dysfunction (4*, 5). Anchoring with MMSE, cognitive functioning MCID estimates for improvement and deterioration were (11, 2*) and for communication deficit were (9, 7). Estimates with asterisks were <0.2 SD and were excluded from our MCID range of 5-14.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These estimates can help clinicians evaluate changes in HRQoL over time, assess the value of a health care intervention and can be useful in determining sample sizes in designing future clinical trials.
authors.affiliation: Quality of Life Department, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Brussels, Belgium. Electronic address: john.maringwa@eortc.be.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Maringwa
authors.affiliation: Quality of Life Department, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Quinten
authors.affiliation: Psycho-oncology Co-operative Research Group, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: King
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiation Oncology, The Princess Margaret Hospital, University of Toronto, Toronto.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ringash
authors.affiliation: Quality of Life Consulting, West Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Osoba
authors.affiliation: Quality of Life Department, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coens
authors.affiliation: Quality of Life Department, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Martinelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Policy and Management, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Caroline at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, USA.
authors.forename: B B
authors.initials: BB
authors.lastname: Reeve
authors.affiliation: Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Gotay
authors.affiliation: Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Medical University Graz, Graz, Austria.
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Greimel
authors.affiliation: Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University of Magdeburg, Magdeburg, Germany.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Flechtner
authors.affiliation: Department of Symptom Research, University of Texas, Houston, USA.
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Cleeland
authors.affiliation: Medical Ethics, University of Regensburg, Regensburg.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Schmucker-Von Koch
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Psychology, Tumor Biology Center, University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Weis
authors.affiliation: AZ Rotterdam-Daniel Den Hoed Kliniek, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Van Den Bent
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Multidisciplinary Center for Oncology, University Hospital CHUV, Lausanne, Switzerland.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Stupp
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Medical Center Haaglanden, The Hague, Netherlands.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Taphoorn
authors.affiliation: Quality of Life Department, European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer, Brussels, Belgium.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bottomley
mesh_terms: D001932:Brain Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011788:Quality of Life; D057566:Self Report; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires