Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
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Support Care Cancer · Dec 2006
Measuring the concerns of cancer patients with low platelet counts: the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy--thrombocytopenia (FACT-Th) questionnaire.
The specific concerns of people with low platelet counts (thrombocytopenia) have not been characterized well in the literature and as a result proper measurement of patient-reported concerns is lacking. We report on the development and validation of questions specifically targeted to patients with thrombocytopenia that can be added to the more general concerns in the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General. ⋯ The FACT-Th is a reliable and valid measure for assessing the impact of thrombocytopenia on patients' lives. It can distinguish cancer patients with and without thrombocytopenia and is responsive to increase in platelet count over time. The FACT-Th may therefore prove useful as a measure of self-reported symptoms and concerns related to thrombocytopenia in clinical trials evaluating new pharmacologic agents and/or platelet transfusion practice.