Reliability of the Brazilian version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Lung (FACT-L) and the FACT-Lung Symptom Index (FLSI)

OBJECTIVES:

The purpose of this study was to assess the reliability of the Brazilian version of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy‐Lung (FACT‐L) with the FACT‐Lung Symptom Index (FLSI) questionnaire.

INTRODUCTION:

The assessment of quality of life in patients with lung cancer has become an important evaluative endpoint in current clinical trials. For lung cancer patients, one of the most common quality of life tools available is the FACT‐L. Despite the amount of data available regarding this questionnaire, there are no data on its performance in Brazilian lung cancer patients.

METHODS:

The FACT‐L with the FLSI questionnaire was prospectively administered to 30 consecutive, stable, lung cancer outpatients at baseline and at 2 weeks.

RESULTS:

The intraclass correlation coefficient between test and retest for the FACT‐L ranged from 0.79 to 0.96 and for the FLSI was 0.87. There was no correlation between these questionnaire dimensions and clinical or functional parameters.

CONCLUSIONS:

The Brazilian version of the FACT‐L with FLSI questionnaire is reliable and is quick and simple to apply. This instrument can now be used to properly evaluate the quality of life of Brazilian lung cancer patients.