Psychometric testing of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecologic Oncology Group—Neurotoxicity (FACT/GOG-Ntx) subscale in a longitudinal study of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy

• Published in: Health and quality of life outcomes Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 1 - 246
• Main Authors: Cheng, Hui Lin, Lopez, Violeta, Lam, Simon Ching, Leung, Anthony Kwun To, Li, Yu Chung, Wong, Kam Hung, Au, Joseph Siu Kie, Sundar, Raghav, Chan, Alexandre, De Ng, Terrence Rong, Suen, Lorna Kwai Ping, Chan, Choi Wan, Yorke, Janelle, Molassiotis, Alex
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London BioMed Central Ltd 23.07.2020; BioMed Central; BMC
• Subjects: Analysis; Bilingualism; Cancer; Cancer patients; Cancer research; Cancer therapies; Care and treatment; Chemotherapy; Correlation analysis; Data collection; EORTC QLQ-CIPN20; Evaluation; FACT/GOG-Ntx; Longitudinal studies; Neurotoxicity; Oncology; Peripheral neuropathy; Psychometrics; Quality of life; Quantitative psychology; Questionnaires; Reliability analysis; Responsiveness; Validity; United Kingdom > UK; Hong Kong China; Singapore
• ISSN: 1477-7525; 1477-7525
• DOI: 10.1186/s12955-020-01493-y

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy/Gynecologic Oncology Group--Neurotoxicity (FACT/GOG-Ntx) subscale in a longitudinal study of cancer patients treated with chemotherapy. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the FACT/GOG-Ntx subscale were 0.82-0.89 across assessment points. The subscale strongly correlated with the EORTC QLQ-CIPN20 (r = 0.79-0.93) but low-to-moderately correlated with the NCI-CTCAE sensory (r.sub.s = 0.23-0.45) and motor items (r.sub.s = 0.15-0.50) as well as the monofilament test (r.sub.s = 0.23-0.47). The hypothesized 4-factor structure of the FACT/GOG-Ntx subscale was not confirmed at assessment points ([chl]2/df = 2.26-8.50; all P < 0.001). The subscale exhibited small-to-moderate sensitivity to change (r = 0.17-0.37). The MCIDs were between 1.38 and 3.68. The FACT/GOG-Ntx subscale has satisfactory reliability, validity, sensitivity to change and responsiveness to evaluate CIPN in cancer patients. Future research is needed to explore the factorial structure of the FACT/GOG-Ntx subscale as the published four-factor structure was not supported in this study.