Observational studyHealth and quality of life outcomes2023
Using the emotional functioning in clinical practice to detect psychological distress in patients with advanced thoracic and colorectal cancer.
Observational study in Health and quality of life outcomes, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Global research trends on gastrointestinal cancer and mental health (2004-2024): a bibliographic study.Frontiers in medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Psychological distress and coping strategies in breast cancer patients under neoadjuvant therapy: A systematic review.Women's health (London, England)Pooled it
- Emotional Functioning in Long-Term Breast Cancer Survivors: A Cross-Sectional Study on Its Influence and Key Predictors.Cancers · 2025Article
- Quality indicators and patient outcome measures for palliative care in cancer patients: a systematic review.Ecancermedicalscience · 2025Review
- Association between pretreatment emotional distress and neoadjuvant immune checkpoint blockade response in melanoma.Nature medicine · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
11 authors.
Funding
Abstract
purposePatients with advanced cancer suffer significant decline of their psychological state. A rapid and reliable evaluation of this state is essential to detect and treat it and improve quality of life. The aim was to probe the usefulness of the emotional function (EF) subscale of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire C30 (EF-EORTC-QLQ-C30) to assess psychological distress in cancer patients.
methodsThis is a multicenter, prospective, observational study involving 15 Spanish hospitals. Patients diagnosed with unresectable advanced thoracic or colorectal cancer were included. Participants completed the Brief Symptom Inventory 18 (BSI-18), the current the gold standard, and the EF-EORTC-QLQ-C30 to assess their psychological distress prior to initiating systemic antineoplastic treatment. Accuracy, sensitivity, positive predictive value (PPV), specificity, and negative predictive value (NPV) were calculated.
resultsThe sample comprised 639 patients: 283 with advanced thoracic cancer and 356 with advanced colorectal cancer. According to the BSI scale, 74% and 66% displayed psychological distress with an EF-EORTC-QLQ-C30 accuracy of 79% and 76% in detecting psychological distress in individuals with advanced thoracic and colorectal cancer, respectively. Sensitivity was 79 and 75% and specificity was 79 and 77% with a PPV of 92 and 86% and a NPV of 56 and 61% (scale cut-off point, 75) for patients with advanced thoracic and colorectal cancer, respectively. The mean AUC for thoracic cancer was 0.84 and, for colorectal cancer, it was 0.85.
conclusionThis study reveals that the EF-EORTC-QLQ-C30 subscale is a simple and effective tool for detecting psychological distress in people with advanced cancer.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.