Interim quality of life results from a real world European survey on the unmet needs of patients living with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC)

Abstract

Background: With increasing emphasis on health-related quality oflife (HRQoL), EuropaColon, a European CRC patient organization, conducted a European survey on experience and HRQoL in mCRC in 12 countries. The aim is to report the interim results with the European Organization for Research and Treatment ofCancer (EORTC) quality oflife questionnaire (QLQ) for Hungary (HU), Poland (PL), Serbia (RS) and Spain (ES). Methods: After IRB approval, clinicians, nurses with partner organizations of EuropaColon recruited patients. In addition to demographics, diagnosis and treatment (reported elsewhere), the survey assessed HRQoL using EORTC QLQ-C30. Single data entry was done by EuropaColon. The QLQ-C30 global score, function- and symptom- specific scores, and the financial difficulties item were summarized by country using the “QoLR” package in R . Results: 548 surveys were analyzed. Completion rates were high in RS, PL and HU (>95%), and lower in ES (77-79%). Place in treatment pathway varied (e.g. in HU 92.2% were undergoing, while in RS 25.6% completed treatment). Scores were consis- tently higher in HU and ES, with emotional function affected the most. Table: