Internal Responsiveness of EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30 in Dutch Breast Cancer Patients during the First Year Post-Surgery: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Noëlle J M C Vrancken Peeters; Janine A van Til; Anouk S Huberts; Sabine Siesling; Olga Husson; Linetta B Koppert

doi:10.3390/cancers16111952

Internal Responsiveness of EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30 in Dutch Breast Cancer Patients during the First Year Post-Surgery: A Longitudinal Cohort Study

Cancers (Basel). 2024 May 21;16(11):1952. doi: 10.3390/cancers16111952.

Authors

Noëlle J M C Vrancken Peeters^{1

2}, Janine A van Til³, Anouk S Huberts⁴, Sabine Siesling^{3

5}, Olga Husson^{1

2}, Linetta B Koppert^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Surgical Oncology, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
² Department of Medical Oncology, Netherlands Cancer Institute-Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, 1066 CX Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
³ Department of Health Technology and Services Research, Technical Medical Centre, University of Twente, 7522 NB Enschede, The Netherlands.
⁴ Department of Quality and Patient Care, Erasmus MC, University Medical Center Rotterdam, 3015 GD Rotterdam, The Netherlands.
⁵ Department of Research and Development, Netherlands Comprehensive Cancer Organisation (IKNL), 3511 DT Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Abstract

The EuroQoL 5-Dimension 5-Level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L) and the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core-30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) are commonly used Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) for breast cancer. This study assesses and compares the internal responsiveness of the EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30 in Dutch breast cancer patients during the first year post-surgery. Women diagnosed with breast cancer who completed the EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30 pre-operatively (T0), 6 months (T6), and 12 months post-surgery (T12) were included. Mean differences of the EQ-5D-5L and EORTC QLQ-C30 between baseline and 6 months (delta 1) and between baseline and 12 months post-surgery (delta 2) were calculated and compared against the respective minimal clinically important differences (MCIDs) of 0.08 and 5. Internal responsiveness was assessed using effect sizes (ES) and standardized response means (SRM) for both deltas. In total, 333 breast cancer patients were included. Delta 1 and delta 2 for the EQ-5D-5L index and most scales of the EORTC QLQ-C30 were below the MCID. The internal responsiveness for both PROMs was small (ES and SRM < 0.5), with greater internal responsiveness for delta 1 compared to delta 2. The EQ-5D-5L index showed greater internal responsiveness than the EORTC QLQ-C30 Global Quality of Life scale and summary score. These findings are valuable for the interpretation of both PROMs in Dutch breast cancer research and clinical care.

Keywords: Breast Cancer; EuroQoL 5-Dimension 5-Level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L); European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core-30 (EORTC QLQ-C30); Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs); Responsiveness.

Grants and funding

The authors received no financial support for this research. The involvement of Dr. Janine van Til was partly sponsored by a grant from the EuroHRQoL group (285-PHD).