Background: Studying health-related quality of life (HRQoL) following cancer treatment has become part of a growing number of standardized treatment protocols. The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) has developed HRQoL questionnaires aimed at cancer patients. A disease-specific part is not available for renal cell carcinoma (RCC) patients, and the present aim was to develop an EORTC-compatible RCC-specific HRQoL questionnaire.
Material and methods: In total 413 RCC patients were treated with radical or partial nephrectomies in Western Norway during the period from 1997 to 2010. Three hundred and nine patients with histologically proven cancer were still alive at the inclusion time point and 185 RCC patients (71% response rate) returned the questionnaires. We determined HRQoL by the EORTC-QLQ C30 questionnaire. We also asked 13 candidates questions aimed at constituting a disease-specific part. Furthermore, we tested parts of personality by the Eysenck Personality Inventory and coping by the COPE questionnaire. Given tumor treatment, TNM stage, alcohol consumption level and smoking levels were also determined from the hospital records.
Results: A factor analysis showed that five factors were formed: one general symptomatic, one general functional, one with disease-specific questions (flank pain, blood in the urine, flank edema, urinary tract infection), one about sexuality and one about weight loss or gain. Ten RCC-specific HRQoL questions were derived from a factor analysis, including four questions related particularly to pain, mobility and social functioning, also representing a short version of the EORTC C30. The psychometric properties and the relation to other psychological and clinical variables were further determined to be satisfactory.
Conclusions: The suggested disease-specific EORTC-QLQ-style RCC10 version adds important information about the HRQoL of RCC patients, providing additional apparent value to the general questionnaire and personality variables, as well as being psychometrically satisfactory. The questionnaire has a potential as a "stand alone" HRQoL questionnaire among RCC patients.