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The Clinical Importance of Quality-of-Life Scores in Patients with Skull Base Tumors: A Meta-Analysis and Review of the Literature

  • Head and Neck Cancers (EY Hanna, Section Editor)
  • Published:
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Abstract

Health-related quality of life (QOL) outcomes are frequently used by clinicians, patients, and researchers for assessing the effectiveness of an intervention. Small differences in QOL may be statistically significant but their clinical relevance remains undefined. The smallest changes in QOL scores of the anterior skull base surgery questionnaire (ASBS-Q) which could be considered clinically significant have not been delineated. Here we present a meta analysis and review of the literature of 273 patients undergoing skull base tumor resection. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID), defined as “the smallest change in QOL which patients perceive as beneficial”, was calculated using several statistical approaches. The MCID of the ASBS-Q was 0.4 (8%, score range 1–5). Various other instruments for QOL estimations revealed a larger range of MCID score (between 6.2%–17.5%) for the different QOL domains. The statistical analyses reveal that histology (benign vs malignant), time elapsed from surgery (< or ≥6 months), and surgical approach (open vs endoscopic) have significant clinical impact on different QOL domains. This paper brings level 1b evidence which demonstrates the importance of MCID as an adjunct for estimation of QOL in patients undergoing skull base surgery.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the Legacy Heritage Biomedical Science Partnership Program of the Israel Science Foundation (No. 1680/08), the Israel Cancer Association (grant donated by Ellen and Emanuel Kronitz in memory of Dr. Leon Kronitz No. 20090068), the Israeli Ministry of Health (No. 3-7355), the Weizmann Institute—Sourasky Medical Center Joint Grant, the Tel Aviv Sourasky Intramural Grant, the ICRF Barbara S. Goodman Endowed Research Career Development Award (2011-601-BGPC), and a grant from the US–Israel Binational Science Foundation (No. 2007312) to Z.G. Esther Eshkol is thanked for her editorial assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Department of Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, 6 Weizmann St., Tel Aviv, 64239, Israel

    Moran Amit, Avraham Abergel, Dan M. Fliss & Ziv Gil

  2. The Head and Neck Surgery Unit and the Laboratory for Applied Cancer Research, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Ziv Gil

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  1. Moran Amit
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  2. Avraham Abergel
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  3. Dan M. Fliss
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  4. Ziv Gil
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Correspondence to Ziv Gil.

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Amit, M., Abergel, A., Fliss, D.M. et al. The Clinical Importance of Quality-of-Life Scores in Patients with Skull Base Tumors: A Meta-Analysis and Review of the Literature. Curr Oncol Rep 14, 175–181 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-012-0222-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11912-012-0222-3

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