420 – Contributed Poster Presentations: Health Policy Statistics Section
Evaluating the Psychometric Properties of the Immunotherapy Module of the MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI-Immunotherapy)
Mehmet Altan
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Charles Cleeland
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Kenneth Hess
MD Anderson Cancer Center
David Hong
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Tito R. Mendoza
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Aung Naing
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Ajay Sheshadri
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Bettzy Stephen
MD Anderson Cancer Center
Immunotherapies have revolutionized the treatment of various cancers but little is known about their symptomatic toxicities. Assessing these symptoms are best accomplished by asking the patients themselves. However, some clinicians are suspicious of subjective reports as real scientific data. Demonstrating the validity of symptom tools mainly through the reduction of measurement errors has the potential impact of improving patient care if these tools are widely adopted. We present the psychometric properties of the MDASI-Immunotherapy in patients receiving various immunotherapies in early phase trials at a major cancer center. 282 and 88 patients completed the survey at baseline and after 9 weeks of treatment. The mean age of patients was 57 years, (SD=13.5), 58% were female, 79% identified as white, and 49% had at least some college education. Coefficient alphas for all the subscales were at least 0.70 (range: 0.72-0.93). Significant changes in the module items (95% CI: -0.57, -.09, p< .007) and interference (95% CI: -0.93, -.05, p< .03) were found. In conclusion, the MDASI- Immunotherapy is a valid, reliable and sensitive symptom assessment tool to measure symptomatic toxicities.