ArticleBreast (Edinburgh, Scotland)2026
Which quality of life issues are important to patients with metastatic breast cancer: Phase 1 and 2 development of European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer metastatic breast cancer module (EORTC QLQ-MBR).
Article in Breast (Edinburgh, Scotland), 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
19 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundMetastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains a treatable, but incurable disease. Anti-cancer treatments and supportive therapies aim to control disease, prolong survival, ameliorate physical symptoms and improve quality of life (QoL). Currently, no validated MBC-specific patient-reported outcome measures exist, and existing tools may lack specific content and sensitivity to measure the impact of MBC. This study aims to develop a European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) module for MBC.
methodsDevelopment followed EORTC module guidelines. In phase 1, QoL issues were identified via systematic literature reviews and assessed by semi-structured interviews with healthcare professionals (HCPs) and patients. In phase 2, the most relevant and important issues were converted into questionnaire items using the EORTC Item Library to form the provisional module.
resultsThe review included 103 papers (phase III clinical trials n = 70 and observational or qualitative studies n = 33), from which 185 issues were extracted, spanning physical, psychological, emotional and social domains. Interviews with 41 HCPs and 187 patients from eight countries refined this list to 44. After expert panel review, the provisional module consisted of 40 issues, assessed by 44 items (EORTC QLQ-MBR44). A sub-analysis of the EORTC QLQ-C30 revealed its content to be considered relevant to MBC by HCP and patients.
conclusionThe provisional EORTC MBC-specific module aims to enhance understanding and measurement of QoL in clinical research and care and be the first QoL tool dedicated to MBC. The standardised tool contains relevant QoL issues and is currently undergoing qualitative and psychometric testing.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.