OBJECTIVES: To test FACT-G (Arabic) on Egyptian cancer patients. METHOD: FACT-G was administered to 23 Egyptian patients followed by a semi-structured interview requesting patients to identify any difficulties. Audio-recordings of the patient-researcher interview were made and content analysis performed. Twenty-three patients were enrolled over 8 weeks. RESULTS: Response pattern showed U shaped distribution in 12/23 patients(52%). Fourteen patients(60.8%) responded with (not at all) or (very much) to more than half the items. Analysis of responses per item showed U/J-shaped curve except pain which was normally distributed. Cronbach's Alpha was 0.824 for physical functioning subscale but markedly lower for social and family well being. Questions involving satisfaction/acceptance were perceived in unique cultural context eliciting responses of pre-destined acceptance regardless emotional functioning. Nineteen patients (82.6%) reported questionnaire was difficult to understand. CONCLUSIONS: These results raise concerns regarding the comparability of QOL data collected from Arabic speaking communities in multinational clinical trials to the data collected from western countries and the methodological appropriateness of licensing drugs based on QOL advantage from such data. Cultural adaptation of Arabic translation of FACT-G is recommended before results can be pooled with other populations.

Awad, N.M.N., et al., Pilot study of performance of the Arabic Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G) in Egyptian cancer patients. Psycho-Oncology, 2010. 19: p. S57.

https://insights.ovid.com/pscyho-oncology/ponc/2010/05/002/pilot-study-performance-arabic-functional/137/01445499