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Background: Health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) is a critical aspect to consider when making treatment decisions for patients with non‐Hodgkin‐lymphoma (NHL). This international study by the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) tested the psychometric properties of two newly developed measures for patients with high‐grade (HG)‐ and low‐grade (LG)‐NHL: the EORTC QLQ‐NHL‐HG29 and the EORTC QLQ‐NHL‐LG20 to supplement the core questionnaire (EORTC QLQ‐C30). Methods: Overall, 768 patients with HG‐NHL (N = 423) and LG‐NHL (N = 345) from 12 countries completed the QLQ‐C30, QLQ‐NHL‐HG29/QLQ‐NHL‐LG20 and a debriefing questionnaire at baseline, and a subset at follow‐up for either retest (N = 125/124) or responsiveness to change (RCA; N = 98/49). Results: Confirmatory factor analysis showed an acceptable to good fit of the 29 items of the QLQ‐NHL‐HG29 on its five scales (symptom burden [SB], neuropathy, physical condition/fatigue [PF], emotional impact [EI], and worries about health/functioning [WH]), and of the 20 items of the QLQ‐NHL‐LG20 on its four scales (SB, PF, EI, and WH). Completion took on average 10 minutes. Test–retest reliability, convergent validity, known‐group comparisons, and RCA find satisfactory results of both measures. A total of 31%–78% of patients with HG‐NHL and 22%–73% of patients with LG‐NHL reported symptoms and/or worries (e.g., tingling in hands/feet, lack of energy, and worries about recurrence). Patients reporting symptoms/worries had substantially lower HRQOL compared to those without. Discussion: The use of the EORTC QLQ‐NHL‐HG29 and QLQ‐NHL‐LG20 questionnaires in clinical research and practice will provide clinically relevant data to better inform treatment decision‐making. Plain language summary: The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Group developed two questionnaires.These questionnaires measure health‐related quality of life.The questionnaires are for patients with high‐grade or low‐grade non‐Hodgkin lymphoma.They are called the EORTC QLQ‐NHL‐HG29 and QLQ‐NHL‐LG20.The questionnaires are now internationally validated.This study demonstrates that the questionnaires are reliably and valid, which are important aspects of a questionnaire.The questionnaires can now be used in clinical trials and practice.With the information gathered from the questionnaires, patients and clinicians can better evaluate treatments and discuss the best choice for a patient. This study provides two internationally validated questionnaires for health‐related quality of life assessment in non‐Hodgkin lymphoma: the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) QLQ‐NHL‐HG29 and EORTC QLQ‐NHL‐LG20. The use of these EORTC questionnaires in research and practice will provide clinically relevant data to better inform treatment decision‐making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article compares patient and health care professionals (HCPs) views of the relevance and importance of sexual health issues to form the questionnaire design. It mentions that validated sexual health measures may facilitate physician‐patient communication. It states that the EORTC Sexual Health Questionnaire can be used to identify sexual health problems in research and clinical practice.

Abstract: To develop and pretest an European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer Sexual Health Questionnaire (EORTC SHQ‐22) for the assessment of physical, psychological, and social aspects of sexual health (SH) in male and female cancer patients and survivors. Questionnaire construction started with creating a list of relevant SH issues based on a comprehensive literature review. Issues were subsequently evaluated for relevance and prioritization by 78 healthcare professionals (HCP) and 107 patients from 12 countries during in‐depth interviews (phase 1). Extracted issues were operationalized into items (phase 2). Phase 3 focused on pretesting the preliminary questionnaire in a cross‐cultural patient sample (n = 171) using debriefing interviews. Psychometric properties were preliminary determined using a principal component analysis and Cronbach's alpha. We derived 53 relevant SH issues from the literature. Based on HCP and patient interviews, 22 of these 53 issues were selected and operationalized into items. Testing the preliminary 22‐item short questionnaire resulted in a change of wording in five items and two communication‐related items; no items were removed. Preliminary psychometric analysis revealed a two‐factor solution and 11 single items; both scales showed good reliability indicated by a Cronbach's alpha of 0.87 (sexual satisfaction) and 0.82 (sexual pain). Cross‐cultural pretesting of the preliminary EORTC SH questionnaire has indicated excellent applicability, patient acceptance, and comprehensiveness as well as good psychometric properties. The final development phase, that is psychometric validation (phase four) including large‐scale, cross‐cultural field testing of the EORTC SHQ‐22, has commenced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims POLE exonuclease domain mutations identify a subset of endometrial cancer ( EC) patients with an excellent prognosis. The use of this biomarker has been suggested to refine adjuvant treatment decisions, but the necessary sequencing is not widely performed and is relatively expensive. Therefore, we aimed to identify histopathological and immunohistochemical characteristics to aid in the detection of POLE-mutant ECs. Methods and results Fifty-one POLE-mutant endometrioid, 67 POLE-wild-type endometrioid and 15 POLE-wild-type serous ECs were included (total N = 133). An expert gynaecopathologist, blinded to molecular features, evaluated each case (two or more slides) for 16 morphological characteristics. Immunohistochemistry was performed for p53, p16, MLH1, MSH2, MSH6, and PMS2. POLE-mutant ECs were characterised by a prominent immune infiltrate: 80% showed peritumoral lymphocytes and 59% showed tumour-infiltrating lymphocytes, as compared with 43% and 28% of POLE-wild-type endometrioid ECs, and 27% and 13% of their serous counterparts ( P < 0.01, all comparisons). Of POLE-mutant ECs, 33% contained tumour giant cells; this proportion was significantly higher than that in POLE-wild-type endometrioid ECs (10%; P = 0.003), but not significantly different from that in serous ECs (53%). Serous-like features were as often (focally) present in POLE-mutant as in POLE-wild-type endometrioid ECs (6-24%, depending on the feature). The majority of POLE-mutant ECs showed wild-type p53 (86%), negative/focal p16 (82%) and normal mismatch repair protein expression (90%). Conclusions A simple combination of morphological and immunohistochemical characteristics (tumour type, grade, peritumoral lymphocytes, MLH1, and p53 expression) can assist in prescreening for POLE exonuclease domain mutations in EC, increasing the probability of a mutation being detected from 7% to 33%. This facilitates the use of this important prognostic biomarker in routine pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Comparison of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) with conventional ultrasound for the follow‐up in Uveal Melanoma (UM) patients treated with brachytherapy or proton beam therapy (PBT). Methods: 26 UM patients were scanned before, 3, 6 and 12 months after ruthenium brachytherapy (n = 13) or PBT (n = 13) at 3Tesla MRI. Tumour prominence measurements were compared between MRI and ultrasound. On Perfusion weighted MR‐imaging (PWI), the relative enhancement and outflow at 2 min after peak were assessed. Treatment response was defined as a reduction of ≥0.6 mm prominence and/or ≥5% perfusion outflow was achieved. Results: Pretreatment prominences were comparable on MR and ultrasound (mean absolute difference 0.49 ± 0.46 mm), larger differences were observed at 3 and 6 months post treatment (0.88 ± 0.86 mm and 0.74 ± 0.72 mm, respectively). At 12 months post treatment, the difference was reduced to 0.55 ± 0.33 mm. Pretreatment, 76% of the UM showed a washout perfusion curve. The pretreatment average enhancement and outflow were 98% (SD:49%) and 31% (SD: 25%) respectively. At 3 months post treatment tumours showed 41% less outflow on average with more favourable perfusion curves (e.g. 68% showed a persistent or plateau curve). At 6 and 12 months post treatment, tumours continued to show less outflow (respectively, −47% and −38%) and more favourable perfusion curves (respectively, 79% and 76% with either persistent or plateau curves). These, generally favourable, perfusion changes were also observed when no reduction in prominence was yet apparent, which is why treatment response was more frequently detected on MRI as opposed to ultrasound. For example, at 3 months post treatment >80% of patients were already detected on MRI versus 46% on ultrasound. Conclusions: MRI is beneficial for the follow‐up of UM patients, especially for PBT treated patients as these generally take longer before a reduction in prominence can be observed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Protocol deviations in Randomised Controlled Trials have been found to result in a significant decrease in survival and local control. In some cases, the magnitude of the detrimental effect can be larger than the anticipated benefits of the interventions involved. The implementation of appropriate quality assurance of radiotherapy measures for clinical trials has been found to result in fewer deviations from protocol. This paper reports on a benchmarking study conducted in preparation for the PORTEC-3 trial in Australasia.Methods: A benchmarking CT dataset was sent to each of the Australasian investigators, it was requested they contour and plan the case according to trial protocol using local treatment planning systems. These data was then sent back to Trans-Tasman Oncology Group for collation and analysis.Results: Thirty three investigators from eighteen institutions across Australia and New Zealand took part in the study. The mean clinical target volume (CTV) volume was 383.4 (228.5-497.8) cm(3) and the mean dose to a reference gold standard CTV was 48.8 (46.4-50.3) Gy.Conclusions: Although there were some large differences in the contouring of the CTV and its constituent parts, these did not translate into large variations in dosimetry. Where individual investigators had deviations from the trial contouring protocol, feedback was provided. The results of this study will be used to compare with the international study QA for the PORTEC-3 trial. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

. Purpose: To determine the long-term effects of ruthenium-106 plaque radiation therapy for iris and iridociliary melanomas in terms of tumour regression and complications. Methods: Between 1 November 1997 and 31 December 2007, 36 patients with an iris or iridociliary melanoma were treated with Ruthenium-106 (Ru-106) ophthalmic plaque radiation therapy. The median follow-up was 6.5 years with a range of 2-11 years. The mean tumour apex dose was 151.5 Gy. Main outcome measures were local tumour control and radiation-related ocular complications. Results: The mean age of the patients at the time of treatment was 54 years (range 14-82). The tumours had a median largest basal dimension of 4.8 mm (range 3-11) and a prominence of 2.3 mm (range 0.8-5), with a median involvement of three clock hours (range 1-6). The tumours were confined to the iris in 14 patients (39%), extended into the anterior ciliary body in 12 (33%), while the anterior ciliary body tumour extended into the iris in ten patients (28%). Tumours regressed in all patients (100%) with a mean regression of 80% of the original tumour size at 7 years of follow-up. Radiation-related complications included corneal erosions on the first postoperative day in nine patients (25%), cataract in four of 11 patients free of cataract before treatment (36%) and postradiation glaucoma in one patient (3%). Visual acuity of 20/200 or worse was present in one of 20 patients (5%) at 6 years of follow-up. Local recurrences occurred in two patients (5%), 2 and 5 years after the radiation therapy respectively, and both underwent enucleation. Distant metastases occurred in one of these enucleated patients (3%) 2 years after treatment. Conclusion: Ru-106 plaque radiation therapy for iris and iridociliary melanoma resulted in good local tumour control and preservation of visual acuity with few and treatable side-effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]