Korean translation and validation of the functional assessment of cancer therapy-breast (FACT-B) scale version 4.

We undertook to translate and cross-culturally adapt the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) scale into Korean and to evaluate its reliability and validity. The translation procedure followed the standard Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy translation methodology. A total of 201 breast cancer patients (mean age, 43.87 years) were studied for psychometric properties of the FACT-B scale. A pre-test of 20 Korean breast cancer patients indicated that the Korean FACT-B scale provided good content coverage and overall comprehensibility. Our results indicated high internal consistency of the FACT-B scale, with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from 0.79 to 0.90. The only exception was the Breast Cancer Scale (BCS), which had a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.67. We can consider that most of the patients in this study had not resumed sexual activity after surgery and found it difficult to comment on this aspect. We also considered that contents of the BCS may have been somewhat heterogeneous. After performing a factor analysis of the BCS data from this study, we identified three factors, accounting 58.8%: psychological distress (5 items, with explained variances of 27.5%), feminine satisfaction (2 items, with explained variances of 17.1%), and physical complaints (2 items, with explained variances of 14.2%). The FACT-B scale also demonstrated good convergent and divergent validity when correlated with the shortened forms of the Profile of Mood States and the Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC). We can now evaluate the Quality of Life (QoL) of Korean breast cancer patients using this reliable and valid instrument. Nevertheless our study has the limitation that it did not evaluate the sensitivity to the changes of the patients' QoL in the long term follow-up, and we will supplement it in our further study.

Efficacy of progressive muscle relaxation training and guided imagery in reducing chemotherapy side effects in patients with breast cancer and in improving their quality of life.

GOALS: This study was designed to assess the effectiveness of progressive muscle relaxation training (PMRT) and guided imagery (GI) in reducing the anticipatory nausea and vomiting (ANV) and postchemotherapy nausea and vomiting (PNV) of patients with breast cancer and to measure their effects on the patients' quality of life (QoL). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Thirty chemotherapy-naive patients with breast cancer were randomized to the PMRT and GI group and 30 to the control group. Before each of six cycles of adjuvant chemotherapy, each patient was administered a self-report Multiple Affect Adjective Checklist (MAACL), and incidents of ANV and PNV for the first three postchemotherapy days were recorded. All patients were administered the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Breast (FACT-B) at baseline and after 3 and 6 months. RESULTS: We found that the PMRT and GI group was significantly less anxious, depressive, and hostile than the control group. We also found that the PMRT and GI group experienced significantly less ANV and PNV and that 6 months after CT, the QoL of the PMRT and GI group was higher than that of the control group. CONCLUSION: These results indicate that PMRT and GI were associated with both the improvements in ANV and PNV and in the QoL of patients with breast cancer.