Publications by authors named "Juan Ignacio Arraras"

Purpose: This study aims to identify a combination of clinical, demographic, and patient competence determinants of patients' communication with doctors and nurses in an international sample of cancer patients.

Methods: For our cross-sectional study, cancer patients assessed their communication with their doctors or nurses at the start of their treatment. Patients completed EORTC communication questionnaire QLQ-COMU26 to assess ten areas of communication with their doctor or nurses plus another item to assess how competent they felt when communicating with professionals.

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Article Synopsis
  • - The EORTC QLQ-COMU26 is a newly developed questionnaire aimed at assessing how cancer patients perceive their communication with healthcare professionals, tested for validity and reliability among a diverse international sample.
  • - In a study with 498 cancer patients across 10 European countries, Japan, Jordan, and India, the questionnaire demonstrated clarity and minimal emotional distress, with strong reliability and appropriate scale structure confirmed through various assessments.
  • - The QLQ-COMU26 effectively identified differences in patient experiences based on factors like sex, education, and satisfaction with communication, as well as captured changes over time related to patient interactions with healthcare providers.
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Article Synopsis
  • Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) that assess health-related quality of life (HRQOL) are increasingly important in renal cell cancer (RCC) clinical trials for drug approval and policy making.
  • The review identified 48 studies, mostly randomized controlled trials, that utilized 27 different PROMs, but only a small fraction were specifically designed for kidney cancer patients; 46% didn’t use any RCC-specific PROMs at all.
  • The most commonly used PROMs focused on issues like pain, fatigue, and sleep quality, highlighting a lack of consistency in the tools used, which complicates the comparison of findings across studies.
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Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of the type of data capture on the time and help needed for collecting patient-reported outcomes as well as on the proportion of missing scores.

Methods: In a multinational prospective study, thyroid cancer patients from 17 countries completed a validated questionnaire measuring quality of life. Electronic data capture was compared to the paper-based approach using multivariate logistic regression.

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Objective: In this article, the quality of life (QOL) of Spanish postmenopausal early-stage breast cancer patients who have finished endocrine therapy (ET), QOL changes after endocrine therapy cessation, and the differences between two endocrine therapy modalities (tamoxifen or aromatase inhibitor [AI]) are studied. More QOL information after endocrine therapy cessation is needed.

Methods: A prospective cohort study was performed.

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Objectives: To describe the Quality of Life (QOL) of breast-cancer patients diagnosed with COVID-19 and analyse its evolution, compare the QOL of these patients according to the COVID-19 wave in which they were diagnosed, and examine the clinical and demographic determinants of QOL.

Methods: A total of 260 patients with breast cancer (90.8% I-III stages) and COVID-19 (85% light/moderate) were included (February-September 2021) in this study.

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Purpose: To develop and validate a health-related quality of life (HRQoL) questionnaire for patients with current or previous coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in an international setting.

Methods: This multicenter international methodology study followed standardized guidelines for a four-phase questionnaire development. Here, we report on the pretesting and validation of our international questionnaire.

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Background: We aimed to create a questionnaire to assess the health-related quality of life including functioning, symptoms, and general health status of adult patients with current or previous COVID-19. Here, we report on Phase I and II of the development.

Methods: Internationally recognized methodology for questionnaire development was followed.

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Purpose: The purpose of this study is to develop a European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Group (EORTC QLG) questionnaire that captures the full range of physical, mental, and social health-related quality of life (HRQOL) issues relevant to disease-free cancer survivors. In this phase III study, we pretested the provisional core questionnaire (QLQ-SURV111) and aimed to identify essential and optional scales.

Methods: We pretested the QLQ-SURV111 in 492 cancer survivors from 17 countries with one of 11 cancer diagnoses.

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Purpose: General population normative data for the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ-C30 questionnaire facilitates interpretation of data assessed from cancer patients. This study aims to present normative data of the general Spanish population.

Methods/patients: Data were obtained from a prior larger study collecting EORTC QLQ-C30 norm data across 15 countries.

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Purpose: This systematic review was performed to identify all relevant health-related quality of life (HRQoL) issues associated with COVID-19.

Methods: A systematic literature search was undertaken in April 2020. In four teams of three reviewers each, all abstracts were independently reviewed for inclusion by two reviewers.

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Background: Targeted therapies (TTs) have revolutionised cancer treatment with their enhanced specificity of action. Compared with conventional therapies, TTs are delivered over a longer period and often have unusual symptom profiles. Patient-reported outcome measures such as symptom side-effect lists need to be developed in a time-efficient manner to enable a rapid and full evaluation of new treatments and effective clinical management OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to develop a set of TT-related symptoms and identify the optimal method for developing symptom lists.

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Purpose: Surgical complications such as hypoparathyroidism (HPT) or vocal cord palsy are seldom assessed when the quality of life (QOL) in thyroid cancer patients is investigated. The aim of this study was to measure the QOL difference in thyroid cancer survivors with and without HPT.

Methods: Participants for this analysis were enrolled in 13 countries from a study that pilot-tested a thyroid cancer-specific QOL instrument.

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Background And Objectives: Quality of life (QoL) is a key outcome for elderly cancer patients. The EORTC has developed QLQ-ELD14, a questionnaire that assesses important age-specific issues for older patients with cancer. This study aims to validate QLQ-ELD14 for use with elderly Spanish breast cancer patients.

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Objective: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Group (EORTC QLG) has developed a multidimensional instrument measuring cancer-related fatigue, the EORTC QLQ-FA12. The analysis of sensitivity to change is an essential part of psychometric validation. With this study, we investigated the EORTC QLQ-FA12's sensitivity to change.

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This study assesses how insight influences depression and Quality of Life (QOL) in schizophrenia-spectrum outpatients and whether depression modifies the relationship between insight and QOL. 141 patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorders with stable disease completed the EUROQOL-5D-5L and SQLS-R4, SAI-E and Calgary scales. Univariate and multivariate linear regression models were fitted to assess whether insight was related to QOL and/or depression.

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Purpose: This paper studies the Quality of Life (QL) of elderly early-stage breast cancer survivors. The aims are to compare the QL scores of these patients after follow-up with their scores before the start of radiotherapy (RT) and compare QL among different axillary treatment groups.

Methods: Of 173 patients over 65 who began treatment and completed the EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BR23 and the Interview for Deterioration in Daily Living Activities in Dementia (IDDD) before RT, 138 also completed these questionnaires three years after RT.

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Backround: The number of cancer survivors is growing steadily and increasingly, clinical trials are being designed to include long-term follow-up to assess not only survival, but also late effects and health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Therefore it is is essential to develop patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) that capture the full range of issues relevant to disease-free cancer survivors. The objectives of this project are: 1) to develop a European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) questionnaire that captures the full range of physical, mental and social HRQOL issues relevant to disease-free cancer survivors; and 2) to determine at which minimal time since completion of treatment the questionnaire should be used.

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Background: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Group has developed a new multidimensional instrument measuring cancer-related fatigue to be used in conjunction with the quality of life core questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). The module EORTC QLQ-FA13 assesses physical, cognitive, and emotional aspects of cancer-related fatigue.

Methods: The methodology follows the EORTC guidelines for phase IV validation of modules.

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The purpose of the study was to pilot-test a questionnaire measuring health-related quality of life (QoL) in thyroid cancer patients to be used with the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) core questionnaire EORTC QLQ-C30. A provisional questionnaire with 47 items was administered to patients treated for thyroid cancer within the last 2 years. Patients were interviewed about time and help needed to complete the questionnaire, and whether they found the items understandable, confusing or annoying.

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Purpose: Communication between patients and professionals is one major aspect of the support offered to cancer patients. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group (QLG) has developed a cancer-specific instrument for the measurement of different issues related to the communication between cancer patients and their health care professionals.

Methods: Questionnaire development followed the EORTC QLG Module Development Guidelines.

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Purpose: More research is needed into Quality of Life (QoL) in young early-stage breast cancer patients in the long-term. Knowledge of long-term effects of surgery on QoL in breast cancer patients is limited. The purpose of this study was to assess QoL in premenopausal Spanish early- stage breast cancer patients over a long follow-up period and evaluate differences among surgery-treated groups and the influence of time on patient QoL.

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