Access provided by Autonomous University of Puebla. Download reference work entry PDF
Definition
The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer core quality of life questionnaire, the EORTC QLQ-C30, is a cancer-specific quality of life instrument applicable to a broad range of cancer patients. The EORTC QLQ-C30 is designed to assess health-related quality of life of cancer patients participating in international oncology clinical trials. The instrument has been developed according to the so-called modular approach, where a generic or “core” instrument is combined with a specific questionnaire, so-called modules, assessing in more detail topics of relevance to specific cancer patient subgroups. The combination of a core instrument and a module allows for a sufficient degree of generalizability (via the core instrument) and specificity (via the module) (Aaronson et al., 1996; Bottomley & Aaronson, 2007; Velikova et al., 2012).
Description
The EORTC QLQ-C30 assesses health-related quality of life and symptoms and was designed to be (1) cancer specific, (2) multidimensional in structure, (3) appropriate for self-administration (i.e., brief and easy to complete), and (4) applicable across a range of cultural settings (Aaronson et al., 1993). The EORTC QLQ-C30 consists of 30 items that are combined to form five functional scales (physical, role, cognitive, emotional, and social), three symptom scales (fatigue, pain, and nausea and vomiting), a global health status/quality of life scale, and a number of single items assessing additional symptoms commonly reported by cancer patients (dyspnea, loss of appetite, insomnia, constipation, and diarrhea) and perceived financial impact of the disease. The scales comprise between two and five items each. All items have four response categories (not at all, a little, quite a bit, and very much), except for the two items of the global health status/quality of life scale that use a seven-point scale. The raw scores are linearly transformed to scores that range from 0 to 100, with a higher score representing a higher (“better”) level of functioning or a higher (“worse”) level of symptoms.
Since its general release in 1993, there have been four versions of the EORTC QLQ-C30. The QLQ-C30 Version 3.0 is the most recent version and is used for all new studies.
Additionally, the QLQ-C15-PAL is available, which is an abbreviated 15-item version of the QLQ-C30 developed for use in palliative care (Groenvold et al., 2006). The QLQ-C15-PAL includes those elements of the QLQ-C30 that have been found to be most relevant and important for palliative care, i.e., physical and emotional functioning, pain, fatigue, nausea/vomiting, appetite, dyspnea, constipation, sleeping difficulties, and overall quality of life.
To date, a computer-adaptive testing (CAT) version of QLQ-C30 as well electronic administrations of EORTC QLQ-C30 (Computer-based Health Evaluation System (CHES)) are under development, enabling individual and routine assessment of quality of life.
Key documents supporting the application of the EORTC measurement system in clinical trials and other studies are available. For example, manuals including the scoring algorithm (Fayers et al., 2001) and reference values according to cancer site and stage and other clinical parameters (Scott et al., 2008) are available. Moreover, guidelines for questionnaire module development (Johnson et al., 2011), translation (Dewolf et al., 2009), and how to conduct clinical trial-based HRQOL investigations (Young et al., 1999) are documented. These documents are regularly updated and can be downloaded from http://groups.eortc.be/qol.
Discussion
The EORTC QLQ-C30 is one of the most widely used instruments designed to assess the quality of life of cancer patients (Garratt, Schmidt, Mackintosh, & Fitzpatrick, 2002). To date, the EORTC QLQ-C30 has been translated into and linguistically validated in more than 60 languages, with more than 20 additional local adaptations. The questionnaire is available in all major Western languages and many African and Asian languages. Further translations are in progress.
The QLQ-C30 can be supplemented by disease-specific modules. Over 40 modules are available or underway. The QLQ-C30 is a copyrighted instrument and is distributed from the EORTC Quality of Life Department. Academic use of EORTC instruments is free of charge. Further information can be obtained via the website: http://groups.eortc.be/qol/.
Cross-References
References
Aaronson, N. K., Ahmedzai, S., Bergman, B., Bullinger, M., Cull, A., Duez, N. J., et al. (1993). The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer QLQ-C30: A quality-of-life instrument for use in international clinical trials in oncology. Journal of the National Cancer Institute, 85, 365–376.
Aaronson, N. K., Cull, A. M., Kaasa, S., & Sprangers, M. A. G. (1996). The European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer EORTC modular approach to quality of life assessment in oncology: An update. In B. Spilker (Ed.), Quality of life and pharmacoeconomics in clinical trials (2nd ed., pp. 179–189). Philadelphia: Lippincott-Raven.
Bottomley, A., & Aaronson, N. K. (2007). International perspective on health-related quality-of-life research in cancer clinical trials: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Experience. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 25, 5082–5086.
Dewolf, L., Koller, M., Velikova, G., Johnson, C., Scott, N., Bottomley, A., et al. (2009). EORTC quality of life group translation procedure (3rd ed.). Brussels: European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.
Fayers, P. M., Aaronson, N. K., Bjordal, K., Groenvold, M., Curran, D., Bottomley, A., et al. (2001). The EORTC QLQ-C30 scoring manual (3rd ed.). Brussels: European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.
Garratt, A., Schmidt, L., Mackintosh, A., & Fitzpatrick, R. (2002). Quality of life measurement: Bibliographic study of patient assessed health outcome measures. British Medical Journal, 324(7351), 1417–1419.
Groenvold, M., Petersen, M. A., Aaronson, N. K., Arraras, J. I., Blazeby, J. M., Bottomley, A., et al. (2006). The development of the EORTC QLQ-C15-PAL: A shortened questionnaire for cancer patients in palliative care. European Journal of Cancer, 42(1), 55–64.
Johnson, C., Aaronson, N., Blazeby, J. M., Bottomley, A., Fayers, P., Koller, M., et al. (2011). Guidelines for developing questionnaire modules (4th ed.). Brussels: European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.
Scott, N. W., Fayers, P. M., Aaronson, N. K., Bottomley, A., de Graeff, A., Groenvold, M., Gundy, C., Koller, M., Petersen, M., & Sprangers, M. A. G., EORTC Quality of Life Group. (2008). Reference values manual (pp. 419). European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer. Brussels (ISBN 2-930064-11-0).
Velikova, G., Coens, C., Efficace, F., Greimel, E., Groenvold, M., Johnson, C., et al. (2012). Health-related quality of life in EORTC clinical trials – 30 years of progress from methodological developments to making a real impact on oncology practice. European Journal of Cancer, 10(1), 141–149.
Young, T., de Haes, H., Curran, D., Fayers, P., Brandberg, Y., Vanvoorden, V., et al. (1999). Guidelines for assessing quality of life in EORTC clinical trials. Brussels: European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2014 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this entry
Cite this entry
Sprangers, M.A.G., Bonnetain, F. (2014). EORTC QLQ-C30. In: Michalos, A.C. (eds) Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_901
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-0753-5_901
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-0752-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-0753-5
eBook Packages: Humanities, Social Sciences and LawReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences