Development and Initial Validation of the Thyroid Cancer Module of the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory

Abstract

Objective: The M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) and its modules measure common symptoms related to cancer and its treatment. We report the development and initial validation of the MDASI-Thyroid Cancer module (MDASI-THY). Methods: A list of thyroid-cancer-specific symptoms was generated through focus groups and interviews with thyroid cancer patients, clinicians and researchers. These MDASI-THY items were added to the original MDASI and administered to 60 patients with thyroid cancer. Symptom prevalence and severity were evaluated, along with the reliability and content, construct and known-group validity of the MDASI-THY. Results: Cognitive debriefing performed on a subset of patients indicated that the MDASI-THY items were clear, concise, relevant and easy to understand. Fatigue, drowsiness, sleep disturbance, distress and difficulty remembering were the 5 most prevalent and severe symptoms. Twenty-eight percent of patients had moderate to severe fatigue (≥5 on a 0–10 scale). Average severity was 1.28 and 1.29 for the symptom and interference subscales, respectively. MDASI-THY symptoms were severer for patients with poorer performance status. Cronbach α-values were 0.76, 0.85 and 0.92 for the thyroid-specific symptom items, core symptom subscale and interference subscale, respectively. Conclusions: This study demonstrates preliminary evidence for the validity and reliability of the MDASI-THY.

Does Recall Period Have an Effect on Cancer Patients' Ratings of the Severity of Multiple Symptoms?

“…However, as was found in this study, other studies of cancer patients undergoing a variety of treatments have consistently identified fatigue, sleep disturbance, drowsiness, lack of appetite, pain, and distress as the most severe cluster of symptoms. 8,20,21 This indicates that similar results may be obtained from the 7-day recall version of the MDASI in cancer populations undergoing treatments other than chemoradiation therapy.…”

Measuring the symptom burden associated with the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia

“…Additional symptom items can be appended to the 13 symptom and 6 interference items of the core MDASI to form disease-or treatment-specific modules. [17][18][19][20][21][22][23] The number of additional module-specific symptom items is minimized to keep the module concise and to facilitate repeated measurement.…”

Efficacy of the Natural Clay, Calcium Aluminosilicate Anti-Diarrheal, in Reducing Medullary Thyroid Cancer–Related Diarrhea and Its Effects on Quality of Life: A Pilot Study

“…Diarrhea assessment was performed using a daily stool diary for quantity (number of BMs) and quality (watery, semisolid, solid) of stools. QOL was evaluated using the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory-Thyroid (MDASI-THY) questionnaire: a multi-symptom patientreported outcome measure with a thyroid carcinoma-specific module (18,19). Along with the core MDASI's 13 symptom items and six interference items, the MDASI-THY also assesses six thyroid cancer-specific symptom items.…”