Instructions

The scope of the model’s applicability must always be confirmed and attention must be paid to unusual factors that may be important in a minority of patients.

The data are from a prospective cohort of individuals with early and locally advanced breast cancer from the NEOCOPING multicohort study. This study was promoted by the Continuous Care Group of the Spanish Society of Medical Oncology (SEOM, for its acronym in Spanish), and was conducted at 17 Spanish hospitals between 2016 and 2019. The participants had undergone surgery with curative intent for non-advanced cancers for which clinical guidelines report adjuvant chemotherapy as a valid alternative. The study sought to explore biopsychosocial and pathological aspects that affected quality of life, coping, and oncologist-patient communication.

For this analysis, women ≥18 years were chosen, with a histologically confirmed diagnosis of breast cancer, stages TNM I-III, and indication of adjuvant chemotherapy. All participants were recruited during the interval between surgery and initiation of adjuvant chemotherapy. Exclusion criteria included receiving neoadjuvant therapy and scheduled to receive adjuvant hormone therapy alone or radiotherapy without chemotherapy.

Participants completed the self-report European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core Questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30) scale. The information from the questionnaire was agglutinated into a sum score and evaluated in line with the scoring manual recommended by the EORTC QoL Group. The QoL evaluations were performed twice, once after the first appointment with the oncologist, approximately one month following surgery for the primary tumor and one week prior to initiating adjuvant therapy, and again, during the month following completion of adjuvant chemotherapy, some six months after initiation and prior to undertaking adjuvant radiotherapy/ hormonotherapy when necessary. The calculator uses the global health status at 6 months as the response variable.

Disclaimer: This tool is intended for use by healthcare professionals only. Physicians and other healthcare professionals who use the NeoBreast-QoL calculator should exercise their own clinical judgment. This app does not provide professional advice. We have exercised great caution in creating this app, based on real-world data. However, medical standards and practice may vary as new information becomes available and professionals should consult a variety of medical sources. While we estimate the health status for breast cancer after completing adjuvant chemotherapy, we in no way endorse any particular management strategy. Your reliance upon predictions obtained through this app is solely at your own risk. We assume no liability or responsibility whatsoever for damage or injury (including death) to you or anyone else from the use of this tool.

• Carmona-Bayonas, A., Calderón, C., Hernández, R., Fernández Montes, A., Castelo, B., Ciria-Suarez, L., ... & Jimenez-Fonseca, P. (2021). Prediction of quality of life in early breast cancer upon completion of adjuvant chemotherapy. NPJ Breast Cancer, 7(1), 1-9.