While the EORTC QLQ-C30 is an important tool to assess the generic aspects of QOL, it has limitations and therefore a modular approach was adopted for disease specific treatment measurements. An essential aspect of the "modular" approach to QOL assessment adopted by the EORTC QLG (Quality of Life Group) is the development of modules specific to tumor site, treatment modality, or a QOL dimension, to be administered in addition to the core questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). The modules, like the core questionnaire, are designed for use in cancer clinical trials.
Since individual members or subgroups of the QLG are involved in module development, guidelines are needed and these have been developed to standardize the module development process. This ensures uniformly high quality across modules.
The term "module" is defined, the composition of modules is sketched, the attributes of modules are specified and the module development process is described in detail in the "Guidelines for Developing Questionnaire Modules". For an overview of the module development schema click here.
How can I employ the QLQ-C30 and modules in my study?
If your study purely academic you can download the QLQ-C30 and validated modules by clicking here. If your study is to be carried out by a pharmaceutical company or if your study will be sponsored by the pharmaceutical industry, please contact .
Available modules:
Validated modules:
- Hepatocellular Carcinoma - Primary Liver Cancer (HCC18)
- Lung (LC13)
- Breast (BR23)
- Bone Metastases (BM22)
- Head & Neck (H&N35)
- Oesophageal (OES18)
- Ovarian (OV28)
- Gastric (STO22)
- Multiple Myeloma (MY20)
- Cervical cancer module (CX24)
- Oesophago-Gastric (OG25)
- Prostate (PR25)
- Colorectal Liver Metastases (LMC21)
- Colorectal (CR29)
- Brain (BN20)
- Information module (INFO25)
- Endometrial (EN24)
Modules which have completed Phase 3:
- Testicular Cancer
- Superficial Bladder
- Muscle Invasive Bladder
- High Dose Chemotherapy
- Ophthalmic
- Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia
- Radiation Proctitis
- Pancreatic
- Peripheral Neuropathy
- Carcinoid / Neuroendocrine tumours
- Fatigue
- Elderly
- Spiritual Wellbeing
- Cholangiocarcinoma and gallbladder
For more information on our modules under development, please click
here.
Do you have any newly validated modules?
Several modules are being validated. Please read the website so you can contact the module developer directly and also check the FAQ webpage. You can also contact Rossella Guzzo for more information. The Quality of Life Group is addressing the validation of the modules.
Modules that have completed Phase III are available for general use, but although they have been carefully developed and tested for acceptability with patients, they have not undergone psychometric testing in a large international group of patients. Therefore the suggested subscales for those modules are hypothetical and may change after psychometric analysis. Users are advised to perform psychometric analysis of their data prior to undertaking the analysis of their main study data. Validated modules have undergone formal psychometric testing in a large international group of patients and their subscale structure has been confirmed. They can be used in clinical trials and other studies without the need for extensive psychometric analysis. Nevertheless, it is advisable to run some basic psychometric analyses (e.g., calculating Chronbach's alpha coefficients) to ensure that the questionnaire is performing as expected in any specific research setting.