Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2015 Jan;24(1):135-46.
doi: 10.1007/s11136-014-0629-4. Epub 2014 Jan 31.

Cancer patients' function, symptoms and supportive care needs: a latent class analysis across cultures

Jennifer Barsky Reese  1 , Amanda Blackford, Jonathan Sussman, Toru Okuyama, Tatsuo Akechi, Daryl Bainbridge, Doris Howell, Claire F Snyder
Affiliations

Cancer patients' function, symptoms and supportive care needs: a latent class analysis across cultures

Jennifer Barsky Reese et al. Qual Life Res. 2015 Jan.

Abstract

Purpose: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are an umbrella term covering a range of outcomes, including symptoms, functioning, health-related quality of life, and supportive care needs. Research regarding the appropriate PRO questionnaires to use is informative. A previously published latent class analysis (LCA) examined patterns of function, symptoms, and supportive care needs in a sample of US cancer patients. The current analysis investigated whether the findings from the original study were replicated in new samples from different countries and whether a larger sample combining all the data would affect the classes identified.

Methods: This secondary analysis of data from 408 Japanese and 189 Canadian cancer patients replicated the methods used in the original LCA using data from 117 US cancer patients. In all samples, subjects completed the EORTC-QLQ-C30 and Supportive Care Needs Survey Short Form-34 (SCNS-SF34). We first dichotomized individual function, symptom, and need domain scores. We then performed LCA to investigate the patterns of domains for each of the outcomes, both in the individual country samples and then combining the data from all three samples.

Results: Across all analyses, class assignment was made by level of function, symptoms, or needs. In individual samples, only two-class models ("high" vs. "low") were generally identifiable while in the combined sample, three-class models ("high" vs. "moderate" vs. "low") best fit the data for all outcomes.

Conclusions: In this analysis, the level of burden experienced by patients was the key factor in defining classes.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1. Prevalence of worse performance in the two/three classes across the different samples
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Histograms showing the distributions of model-based posterior probabilities of being assigned to the classes first for the U.S. sample (N=117; From Snyder, Garrett-Mayer, Blackford et al., 2009)[5], followed by the Canadian sample (N=189) and Japanese sample (N=407). Each value represents the probability that a particular individual is in that particular class, given his or her pattern of responses to the QLQ-C30 and SCNS items. Values close to 0 and 1 represent good classification, while values near 0.50 represent class assignment based on chance. Class size is presented as the proportion of the sample (out of 100).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Histograms showing the distributions of model-based posterior probabilities of being assigned to the classes first for the U.S. sample (N=117; From Snyder, Garrett-Mayer, Blackford et al., 2009)[5], followed by the Canadian sample (N=189) and Japanese sample (N=407). Each value represents the probability that a particular individual is in that particular class, given his or her pattern of responses to the QLQ-C30 and SCNS items. Values close to 0 and 1 represent good classification, while values near 0.50 represent class assignment based on chance. Class size is presented as the proportion of the sample (out of 100).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3. Prevalence of worse performance in the three classes in the combined sample (N=687)
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Histograms showing the distributions of model-based posterior probabilities of being assigned to each class in the combined sample (N=687). Each value represents the probability that a particular individual is in that particular class, given his or her pattern of responses to the QLQ-C30 and SCNS items. Values close to 0 and 1 represent good classification, while values near 0.50 represent class assignment based on chance. Class size is presented as the proportion of the combined sample (out of 100).
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Histograms showing the distributions of model-based posterior probabilities of being assigned to each class in the combined sample (N=687). Each value represents the probability that a particular individual is in that particular class, given his or her pattern of responses to the QLQ-C30 and SCNS items. Values close to 0 and 1 represent good classification, while values near 0.50 represent class assignment based on chance. Class size is presented as the proportion of the combined sample (out of 100).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Acquadro C, Berzon R, Dubois D, Leidy NK, Marquis P, Revicki D, Rothman M. Incorporating the patient's perspective into drug development and communication: an ad hoc task force report of the Patient-Reported Outcomes (PRO) Harmonization Group meeting at the Food and Drug Administration, February 16, 2001. Value Health. 2003;6(5):522–531. - PubMed
    1. U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Guidance for Industry: Patient Reported Outcome Measures: Use in Medical Product Development to Support Labeling Claims. 2009 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Snyder CF, Dy SM, Hendricks DE, Brahmer JR, Carducci MA, Wolff AC, Wu AW. Asking the right questions: investigating needs assessments and health-related quality-of-life questionnaires for use in oncology clinical practice. Support Care Cancer. 2007;15(9):1075–1085. - PubMed
    1. Snyder CF, Jensen RE, Geller G, Carducci MA, Wu AW. Relevant content for a patient-reported outcomes questionnaire for use in oncology clinical practice: Putting doctors and patients on the same page. Qual Life Res. 2010;19(7):1045–1055. - PubMed
    1. Snyder CF, Garrett-Mayer E, Blackford AL, Brahmer JR, Carducci MA, Pili R, Stearns V, Wolff AC, Dy SM, Wu AW. Concordance of cancer patients' function, symptoms, and supportive care needs. Qual Life Res. 2009;18(8):991–998. - PubMed

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources