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The ALERT-B questionnaire: A screening tool for the detection of gastroenterological late effects after radiotherapy for prostate cancer

D.J.J. Farnell, J. Staffurth, S. Sivell, S. Ahmedzai, J. Andreyev, J. Green, D.S. Sanders, C.J. Ferguson, Sara Pickett, A. Muls, R. O'Shea, S.H. Campbell, S.E. Taylor, A. Nelson

Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology, Volume: 21, Pages: 98 - 103

Swansea University Author: Sara Pickett

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Abstract

There is an increasing need to measure treatment-related side effects in normal tissues following cancer therapy. The ALERT-B (Assessment of Late Effects of RadioTherapy - Bowel) questionnaire is a screening tool that is composed of four items related specifically to bowel symptoms. Those patients t...

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Published in: Clinical and Translational Radiation Oncology
ISSN: 2405-6308
Published: Elsevier BV 2020
Online Access: Check full text

URI: https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa53625
Abstract: There is an increasing need to measure treatment-related side effects in normal tissues following cancer therapy. The ALERT-B (Assessment of Late Effects of RadioTherapy - Bowel) questionnaire is a screening tool that is composed of four items related specifically to bowel symptoms. Those patients that respond with a “yes” to any of these items are referred on to gastroenterologist in order to improve the long-term consequences of these side effects of radiological treatment. Here we wish to test the ability of this questionnaire to identify these subsequent gastroenterological complications by tracking prostate cancer patients that were positive with respect to ALERT-B. We also carry out receiver-operator curve (ROC) analysis for baseline data for an overall ALERT-B questionnaire score with respect to subscale data for the Gastrointestinal Symptom Rating Scale (GSRS) and the Expanded Prostate Cancer Index Composite (EPIC-26) questionnaire. 84.4% and 95.7% of patients identified by the ALERT-B questionnaire demonstrated complications diagnosed at 6 and 12 months post-treatment, respectively. ROC curve analysis of baseline data showed that ALERT-B detected clinically relevant levels of side effects established at baseline by the GSRS diarrhoea subscale (AUC = 0.867, 95% CI = 0.795 to 0.926) and at the minimally important level of side effects for the EPIC bowel subscale (AUC = 0.765, 95% CI = 0.617 to 0.913). These results show that ALERT-B provides a simple and effective screening tool for identifying gastroenterological complications after treatment for prostate cancer.
Keywords: Prostate cancer; Radiotherapy; Gastroenterological late effects; ROC analysis
College: Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
Funders: The work represented in this manuscript, including the posts of AN and SS was supported by core funding from Marie Curie to the Marie Curie Palliative Care Research Centre, Cardiff University (grant reference: MCCC-FCO-14-C). The results presented here were conducted as part of the EAGLE study, funded by Prostate Cancer UK’s TrueNTH initiative (Grant Reference 250-55).
Start Page: 98
End Page: 103