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Revisiting the use of the EORTC QLQ-STO22 to assess health-related quality of life of patients with gastric cancer: incorporating updated treatment options and cross-cultural perspectives

Sodergren SC 1 , Hurley-Wallace A 2 , Vassiliou V 3 , Alkhaffaf B 4 , Batsaikhan B 5 , Darlington AS 2 Show all authors , Fleitas-Kanonnikof T 6 , Guren MG 7 , Honda M 8 , Kim YW 9 , Kim S 9 , Krishnamurthy MN 10 , Loh SY 11 , Turhal NS 12 , Zhou J 13 , Dennis K 14 , Krishnatry R 15 , Terashima M 16 , Tsironis G 3 , Yoshikawa T 17 , Terada M 18 , EORTC Quality of Life Group

Affiliations 

  • 1 School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK. S.C.Sodergren@soton.ac.uk
  • 2 School of Health Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK
  • 3 Medical Oncology Department, Bank of Cyprus Oncology Centre, Nicosia, Cyprus
  • 4 Department of Oesophago-Gastric & Bariatric Surgery, Northern Care Alliance NHS Foundation Trust, Salford, UK
  • 5 Department of Internal Medicine, Institute of Medical Sciences, Mongolian National University of Medical Sciences, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • 6 Medical Oncology Department, Hospital Clinico Universitario de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
  • 7 Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
  • 8 General South Tohoku Hospital, Koriyama, Japan
  • 9 Center for Gastric Cancer, National Cancer Center, Goyang-si, Korea
  • 10 Department of Clinical Pharmacology, Tata Memorial Centre, Tirupati, India
  • 11 Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 12 Anadolu Medical Center, Çayırova, Turkey
  • 13 Department of General Surgery, The First Affiliated Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China
  • 14 Division of Radiation Oncology, The Ottawa Hospital Cancer Centre, Ottawa, Canada
  • 15 Department of Radiation Oncology, Tata Memorial Centre, Tirupati, India
  • 16 Division of Gastric Surgery, Shizuoka Cancer Center, Shizuoka, Japan
  • 17 Department of Gastric Surgery, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
  • 18 Department of International Clinical Development/International Trials Management Section, National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan
Gastric Cancer, 2024 Jul;27(4):722-734.
PMID: 38668819 DOI: 10.1007/s10120-024-01492-8

Abstract

BACKGROUND: The EORTC QLQ-STO22 (QLQ-STO22) is a firmly established and validated measure of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for people with gastric cancer (GC), developed over two decades ago. Since then there have been dramatic changes in treatment options for GC. Also, East Asian patients were not involved in the development of QLQ-STO22, where GC is most prevalent and the QLQ-STO22 is widely used. A review with appropriate updating of the measure was planned. This study aims to capture HRQoL issues associated with new treatments and the perspectives of patients and health care professionals (HCPs) from different cultural backgrounds, including East Asia.

METHODS: A systematic literature review and open-ended interviews were preformed to identify potential new HRQoL issues relating to GC. This was followed by structured interviews where HCPs and patients reviewed the QLQ-STO22 alongside new issues regarding relevance, importance, and acceptability.

RESULTS: The review of 267 publications and interviews with 104 patients and 18 HCPs (48 and 9 from East Asia, respectively) generated a list of 58 new issues. Three of these relating to eating small amounts, flatulence, and neuropathy were recommended for inclusion in an updated version of the QLQ-STO22 and covered by five additional questions.

CONCLUSIONS: This study supports the content validity of the QLQ-STO22, suggesting its continued relevance to patients with GC, including those from East Asia. The updated version with additional questions and linguistic changes will enhance its specificity, but further testing is required.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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