Department

Statistics and Analytical Sciences

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-2013

Abstract

Purpose

Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) have been found to be significant predictors of clinical outcomes such as overall survival (OS), but the effect of demographic and clinical factors on the prognostic ability of PROs is less understood. Several PROs derived from the 12-item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-12) and M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) were investigated for association with OS, with adjustments for other factors, including performance status.

Methods

A retrospective analysis was performed on data from 90 patients with stage IV non-small cell lung cancer. Several baseline PROs were added to a base Cox proportional hazards model to examine the marginal significance and improvement in model fit attributable to the PRO: mean MDASI symptom interference level; mean MDASI symptom severity level for five selected symptoms; SF-12 physical and mental component summaries; and the SF-12 general health item. Bootstrap resampling was used to assess the robustness of the findings.

Results

The MDASI mean interference level had a significant effect on OS (p = 0.007) when the model was not adjusted for interactions with other prognostic factors. Further exploration suggested the significance was due to an interaction with performance status (p = 0.001). The MDASI mean symptom severity level and the SF-12 physical component summary, mental component summary, and general health item did not have a significant effect on OS.

Conclusions

Symptom interference adds prognostic information for OS in advanced lung cancer patients with poor performance status, even when demographic and clinical prognostic factors are accounted for.

Journal Title

Quality of Life Research

Journal ISSN

0962-9343

Volume

22

Issue

8

First Page

2143

Last Page

2150

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1007/s11136-013-0356-2

Comments

Preprint.

Share

COinS