Overview
The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Head & Neck (FACT-H&N) is a reliable and valid measure for head and neck cancer patients, assessing unique disease specific concerns in addition to general health status. FACT-H&N subscale and total scores are sensitive to patient groups on the basis of treatment status (on vs. off treatment) and global performance status. The head & neck subscale includes 12 items on symptoms and issues specific to head and neck cancers, including ability to eat, dry mouth, difficulty breathing, difficulty swallowing, voice quality, ability to communicate, body image, pain in the mouth, throat, or neck, and alcohol and tobacco use.
MEASURE NAME:
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Head & Neck (FACT-HN)
VERSION:
4
NUMBER OF ITEMS:
39
PATIENT POPULATION:
Head & neck cancer patients 18 years and older
RECALL PERIOD:
Past 7 days
RESPONSE SCALE:
5 point Likert-type scale
DATA COLLECTION:
Paper and electronic
ADMINISTRATION:
Self-administration and interview when applicable
SUBSCALE DOMAINS:
Physical Well-Being, Social/Family Well-Being, Emotional Well-Being, Functional Well-Being, Head & Neck Cancer Subscale
TIME FOR COMPLETION:
10-15 minutes
SCORING:
Manual scoring template, some items are reverse scored. Subscale scores, total scores and TOI scores possible. SAS/SPSS algorithms available.
RELATED MEASURES:
Language Availability
Available translations of the FACT-HN can be obtained by registering for permission. Users are not permitted to translate the FACT-HN without permission from FACIT.org. Permission from FACIT.org to translate the FACT-HN may also be contingent upon timeline expectations and availability of FACIT staff. Translations must undergo a rigorous methodology under the guidance of FACIT.org which includes multiple translators, QA steps and cognitive interviews with patients. For commercial use, FACITtrans is the approved translation vendor to translate the FACIT measurement system.
Please contact us for more information.
Licensing
Licensing fees are assessed on a per trial/per measure basis for commercial use. There is no fee for use of the English version, but a license should be obtained.
Non-commercial use is assessed on a case-by-case basis. Licensing fees are typically not applied to investigator-initiated research, students, or clinical use.
To license an available version of this measure for commercial or non-commercial use, please complete our registration form. All of the information provided in the form will be kept strictly confidential. For questions, please contact us.
Selected References
D'Antonio, L., Zimmerman G., Cella, D., & Long, S. Quality of life and functional status measures in patients with head and neck cancer. Archives of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery 1996; 122: 482-487.
List, M.A., D'Antonio, L.L., Cella, D.F., Siston, A., Mumby, P., Haraf, D., & Vokes, E. The Performance Status Scale for Head and Neck Cancer (PSS-HN) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Head and Neck (FACT-H&N) Scale: A study of utility and validity. Cancer1996; 77(11): 2294-2301. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0142(19960601)77:11<2294::AID-CNCR17>3.0.CO;2-S.
Nayak SG, George A, Sharan K, Nayak BS, Ravishankar N. Effectiveness of Comprehensive Intervention Programme on Quality of life, fatigue, self-efficacy, and psychosocial distress among head and neck cancer patients receiving radiotherapy. Support Care Cancer. 2024 Mar 7;32(4):216. doi: 10.1007/s00520-024-08381-x. PMID: 38448712; PMCID: PMC10917822.
Reeve, B., Cai, J., Zhang, H., Choi, J., Weissler, M., Cella, D., & Olshan, A. Health-related quality of life differences between African-Americans and Non-Hispanic whites with head and neck cancer. Head and Neck2013; 35(9): 1255-64. doi: 10.1002/hed.23115.
Ringash J, Lockwood G, O'Sullivan B, Warde P, Bayley A, Cummings B, Kim J, Sellmann S, & Waldron J. Hyperfractionated, accelerated radiotherapy for locally advanced head and neck cancer: quality of life in a prospective phase I/II trial. Radiotherapy and Oncology: Journal of the European Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, 2008; 87(2):181-187. doi: 10.1016/j.radonc.2007.12.028.
Ringash, J., Bernstein, L, Cella, D., Logemann, J., Movsas, B., Murphy, B., Trotti, A., Wells, N., Yueh, B., & Ridge, J. Outcomes toolbox for head and neck cancer research. Head & Neck 2015; 37(3): 425-39. doi: 10.1002/hed.23561.
Bonomi, A.E., Cella, D.D., Hahn, E.A., Bjordal, K., Sperner, B., Gangeri, L., Bergman, B., Willems, J., Hanquet, P., & Zittoun, R. Multilingual translation of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) quality of life measurement system. Quality of Life Research 1996; 5: 309-320.
Eremenco, S., Arnold, B., Cella, D. A comprehensive method for the translation and cross-cultural validation of health status questionnaires. Evaluation & the Health Professions 2005; 28(2): 212-232.
Webster K., Cella D., Yost K. The Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) measurement system: Properties applications, and interpretation. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2003; 1(1): 79-85.
Yost K.J., Eton D.T. Combining distribution- and anchor-based approaches to determine minimally important differences: The FACIT experience. Evaluation & the Health Professions 2005; 28(2): 172-191.
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