title: Validation of the long-term quality of life breast cancer scale (LTQOL-BC) by health care professionals.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Quality of life has become an important measure of treatment success and is currently being explored not only for patients on active treatment, but also for long-term breast cancer survivors. The long-term quality of life breast cancer scale (LTQOL-BC) is a tool to assess QOL in breast cancer survivors. This study aimed to validate the tool with health care professionals (HCPs).
  
  
  METHODS
  Six HCPs with extensive experience working with breast cancer survivors were selected. HCPs completed the LTQOL-BC and were asked to assess the relevance of each included item to the disease-free breast cancer population. They were also instructed to identify items that could be upsetting for patients, irrelevant to this population, and to assess the tool's breadth of coverage.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Feedback indicated that some items such as the body image and sexual functioning questions were potentially upsetting to patients and should be rephrased or removed. The overall breadth of coverage of the tool was inadequate, with employment status, economic situation, ability to meet needs of family, health care insurance coverage, and overall sense of well-being not being addressed by the LTQOL-BC. HCPs also identified that certain items should be edited including those specifying pain in the lower body and the item containing the term "homemaker".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The LTQOL-BC may need to be modified to take into the recommendations provided by HCPs.
authors.affiliation: Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Christine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ecclestone
authors.forename: Sunil
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Verma
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leahey
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bedard
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hamer
authors.forename: Eileen
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Rakovitch
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pulenzas
authors.forename: Anchal
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bhatia
authors.forename: Carlo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: DeAngelis
authors.forename: Janet
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: Edward
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Chow
mesh_terms: D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D011594:Psychometrics / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards*; D011788:Quality of Life; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires / Q000592:standards*