Health-related quality of life among women with ductal carcinoma in situ or early invasive breast cancer: validation of the FACT-B (version 4)

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objectives: To examine the reliability and validity of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) Version 4. Methods: Women ≥ 40 years with DCIS or early invasive breast cancer treated with whole breast irradiation (n=280) completed patient-reported outcome measures at three time points. Results: Most internal consistency reliability coefficients were 0.70 or greater. At baseline and 6 months, mean FACT-B scores were comparable between physician-reported cosmetic outcome subgroups; at 12 months, most scores were higher (better) for the “excellent” cosmesis group compared to “poor/fair/good” (p<0.05). Most mean FACT-B scores were higher for those with Grade 0-1 CTCAE toxicities versus Grade 2-3 (p<0.05). There were medium to large correlations between the FACT-B and the Body Image Scale. Most FACT-B mean scores were significantly different across BIS change groups (p<0.05). Conclusions: The FACT-B exhibited good reliability and validity in this sample of 280 women treated for DCIS and early invasive breast cancer.