Development and Validation of the BREAST-Q Breast-Conserving Therapy Module

Area of Science:

• Oncology
• Surgical Oncology
• Patient-Reported Outcomes

Background:

• Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are crucial for assessing outcomes in breast cancer surgery, particularly psychosocial well-being.
• Existing measures may not fully capture the unique concerns of patients undergoing breast-conserving therapy (BCT).

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a new BREAST-Q module specifically for patients treated with BCT.
• To address the unique concerns and improve the measurement of outcomes for BCT patients.

Main Methods:

• Phase 1: Qualitative interviews with BCT patients and expert input to establish module content.
• Phase 2: Field-testing and Rasch measurement theory (RMT) analysis for item reduction and psychometric evaluation.
• Phase 3: Validation of the reduced scales in a large clinical sample.

Main Results:

• Developed two new scales (Adverse Effects of Radiation, Satisfaction With Information-Radiation Therapy) and added 15 items to existing scales.
• RMT analysis reduced items, demonstrating ordered response thresholds, good item fit, and reliability for most scales.
• Phase 3 data confirmed the validity and reliability of the final BREAST-Q BCT module.

Conclusions:

• The validated BREAST-Q BCT module effectively evaluates quality metrics in breast cancer surgery.
• This tool facilitates the comparison of surgical outcomes among all breast cancer surgery patients in research and clinical settings.