Overview
A systematic review of the literature on quality of life in melanoma patients suggested an overwhelming need for a disease-specific subscale. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT–Melanoma) was developed to meet this need. This instrument was developed in three stages. In stage I, the literature was comprehensively reviewed, and over 300 cancer-specific items from the Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy (FACIT) item bank were examined to identify items of potential relevance to melanoma patients. In stage II, 20 melanoma experts identified questions that were relevant to melanoma patients to be included in a pilot questionnaire. In stage III, the pilot measure and a semi-structured interview to assess item comprehension, relevance, and overall content were administered to 40 patients with various stages of melanoma. In all, 97 items were culled from the literature and the FACIT item bank; after items were reviewed and evaluated. After final revisions were made, the FACT-M tool included 24 items encompassing three QOL domains: 20 items relate to physical well-being, 3 to emotional well-being, and 1 to social well-being. The face and content validity of the FACT–M was confirmed in melanoma patients and by professionals.
MEASURE NAME:
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – Melanoma (FACT-M)
VERSION:
4
NUMBER OF ITEMS:
51
PATIENT POPULATION:
Melanoma 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, Melanoma Subscale
TIME FOR COMPLETION:
10-15 minutes
SCORING:
Manual scoring template, some items are reverse scored. Subscale scores, total scores and TOI scores possible.
RELATED MEASURES:
Language Availability
Available translations of the FACT-M can be obtained by registering for permission. Users are not permitted to translate the FACT-M without permission from FACIT.org. Permission from FACIT.org to translate the FACT-M 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
Askew, R., Xing, Y., Plamer, J., Cella, D., Moye, L., & Cormier, J. Evaluating minimal important differences for the FACT-Melanoma quality of life questionnaire. Value in Health 2009; 12(8): 1144–1150. doi: 10.1111/j.1524-4733.2009.00570.x.
Bharmal, M. Fofana, F., Barbosa, C., Williams, P., Mahnke, L., Marrel, A., & Schlichting, M. Psychometric properties of the FACT-M questionnaire in patients with Merkel cell carcinoma. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2017; 15:247. doi: 10.1186/s12955-017-0815-5.
Bagge, AS.L., Ben-Shabat, I., Belgrano, V. et al. Health-Related Quality of Life for Patients Who have In-Transit Melanoma Metastases Treated with Isolated Limb Perfusion. Ann Surg Oncol 23, 2062–2069 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1245/s10434-016-5103-9
Cormier, J., Davidson, L, Webster, K., Cella, D., Xing, Y., Ross, M., Gershenwald, J., Lee, J., Mansfield, P., Camacho, L., Kim, K., Papadopoulos, N., & Palmer, J. Prospective assessment of the reliability, validity, and sensitivity to change of the functional assessment of cancer therapy-melanoma (FACT-Melanoma) questionnaire. Cancer 2008; 112(10): 2249-2257. doi: 10.1002/cncr.23424.
Cormier, J., Davidson, L., Xing, Y., Webster, K., & Cella, D. Measuring quality of life in patients with melanoma: Development of the FACT-Melanoma subscale. Journal of Supportive Oncology 2005; 3(2): 139-145.
Lindqvist Bagge AS, Wesslau H, Cizek R, Holmberg CJ, Moncrieff M, Katsarelias D, Carlander A, Olofsson Bagge R. Health-related quality of life using the FACT-M questionnaire in patients with malignant melanoma: A systematic review. Eur J Surg Oncol. 2021 Sep 20:S0748-7983(21)00739-3. doi: 10.1016/j.ejso.2021.09.013. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34600786.
Robinson, D., Cormier, J., Zhao, N., Uhlar, C., Revicki, D., & Cella, D. Health-related quality of life among patients with metastatic melanoma: results from an international Phase 2 multicenter study. Melanoma Research 2012; 22(1):54–62. doi: 10.1097/CMR.0b013e32834d3da0.
Swartz, R., Baum, G., Askew, R., Palmer, J., Ross, M., & Cormier, J. Reducing patient burden to the FACT-Melanoma quality-of-life questionnaire. Melanoma research 2012; 22(2): 158-63. doi: 10.1097/CMR.0b013e3283511dbf.
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.
Related Measures