Comparison of the EORTC QLU-C10D

The QLU-C10D is a newly developed, cancer-specific multi-attribute utility instrument (MAUI) which has been included in the EORTC assessment system and can be used for health economic evaluations in cost-utility analyses (CUA). The most commonly used utility instruments are generic, i.e. cover overal aspects of functioning only. The QLU-C10D is based on the QLQ-C30 and includes 10 of its 15 domains. Therefore, it is considered to capture symtpoms and functioning aspects specific to cancer patients and to be more sensitive in this patient group.

The present study aims at assessing the relative validity of the QLU-C10D in cancer patients compared to the most widely used generic utilty instruments, such as the EQ-5D and the SF-6D. Furthermore, a manual for the use of the QLU-C10D in CUAs will be developed.

The clinical validity of the EORTC QLU-C10D has been tested and proved in a range of cancer site and treatment settings, such as lung cancer, glioma, and oesophageal cancer. Respective publications will be available soon.

Prospective data collection (Austria and France) has been completed and analyses are ongoing.

A systematic literature and trial data base search has identified >50 oncology trials potentially eligible for our retrospective analyses. Five data sets from academic studies and 6 data sets from industry funded/conducted studies could be used for analyses. Results are being published and indicate good clinical validity of the QLU-C10D. Analyses of 2 data sets are outstanding.

Relative validity in comparison with the EQ-5D-3L in retrospective trial analyses likewise was good, comparison with the EQ-5D-5L and the SF-6D are currently outstanding.

An international and multi professional  working group within the project has drafted a user manual for the QLU-C10D which is ready for external review.

QLU-C10D norm data have been developed for 5 countries and are currently being published.

Current status:

User manual for the QLU-C10D is finalized and is available on the website. Scoring codes for QLU-C10D for all currently available country tarifs are finalized and can be soon downloaded from the EORTC QLU-C10D website.

Analyses of prospective data by the end of 2022, publication of results by June 2023.

Publication of all retrospective trial data analyses by the June 2023.

Finalization of QLU-C10D manual by the end of  2022.

The QLU-C10D is a kind of questionnaire, developed to capture cancer patients’ quality of life and to relate it to survival time and costs of treatment in health economic studies. The study investigates whether the QLU-C10D is able to capture cancer patients’ quality of life issues more precisely than generic questionnaires which were not designed specifically for cancer patients.