Overview
The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General (FACT-G) is a 27-item questionnaire designed to measure four domains of HRQOL in cancer patients: Physical, social, emotional, and functional well-being. Original development and validation involved 854 patients with cancer and 15 oncology specialists. An initial pool of 370 overlapping items for breast, lung, and colorectal cancer was generated by open-ended interviews with patients experienced with the symptoms of cancer and oncology professionals. Using preselected criteria, items were reduced to a 38-item general version. Factor and scaling analyses of these 38 items on 545 patients with mixed cancer diagnoses resulted in the 27-item FACT-General (FACT-G). Coefficients of reliability and validity were uniformly high. The scale's ability to discriminate patients on the basis of stage of disease, performance status rating (PSR), and hospitalization status supports its sensitivity. It has also demonstrated sensitivity to change over time.
MEASURE NAME:
Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G)
VERSION:
4
NUMBER OF ITEMS:
27
PATIENT POPULATION:
Cancer 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
TIME FOR COMPLETION:
5-10 minutes
SCORING:
Manual scoring template, some items are reverse scored. Subscale scores and total scores possible. SAS/SPSS algorithms available.
RELATED MEASURES:
Language Availability
Available translations of the FACT-G can be obtained by registering for permission. Users are not permitted to translate the FACT-G without permission from FACIT.org. Permission from FACIT.org to translate the FACT-G 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
Cella D.F., Tulsky D.S., Gray G., Sarafian B., Lloyd S., Linn E., Bonomi A., Silberman M., Yellen S.B., Winicour P., Brannon J., Eckberg K., Purl S., Blendowski C., Goodman M., BarnicleM., Stewart I., McHale M., Bonomi P., Kaplan E., Taylor S., Thomas C., Harris J. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT) Scale: Development and validation of the general measure. Journal of Clinical Oncology 1993; 11(3): 570-579.
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.
Brucker P.S., Yost K., Cashy J., Webster K., Cella D. General population and cancer patient norms for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G). Evaluation & the Health Professions 2005; 28(2): 192-211.
Cella D., Hahn E., Dineen K. Meaningful change in cancer-specific quality of life scores: Differences between improvement and worsening. Quality of Life Research 2002; 11(3): 207-21.
Cheung Y.B., Thumboo J., Gao F., Ng G.Y., Pang G., Koo W.H., Sethi V.K., Wee J., Goh C. Mapping the English and Chinese versions of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General to the EQ-5D Utility Index. Value in Health 2009; 12(4): 371-376.
Dobrez D., Cella D., Pickard A.S., Lai, J.S., Nickolov A. Estimation of patient preference-based utility weights from the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General. Value in Health2007; 10(4): 266-272.
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.
Fairclough D.L., Cella D.F. Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy (FACT-G): Non-response to individual questions. Quality of Life Research 1996; 5: 321-329.
Hahn E.A., Rao D., Cella D., Choi S.W. Comparability of interview- and self-administration of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G) in English- and Spanish-Speaking ambulatory cancer patients. Medical Care 2008; 46(4): 423-431.
Janda M., DiSipio T., Hurst C., Cella D., Newman B. The Queensland cancer risk study: general population norms for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G). Psycho-Oncology 2009; 18: 606-614.
Overcash, J., Extermann, M., Parr, J., Perry, J., & Balducci, L. Validity and reliability of the FACT-G scale for use in the older person with cancer. American Journal of Clinical Oncology2001; 24 (6`1), 591-596
Pearman T., Yanez B., Peipert J., Wortman K., Beaumont J., Cella D. Ambulatory cancer and US general population reference values and cutoff scores for the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy. Cancer 2014: 2902-2909.
Peipert J.D., Cella D. Bifactor analysis confirmation of the factorial structure of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy – General (FACT-G). Psycho-Oncology 2019; 28: 1149-1152.
Steel JL, George CJ, Terhorst L, Yabes JG, Reyes V, Zandberg DP, Nilsen M, Kiefer G, Johnson J, Marsh C, Bierenbaum J, Tageja N, Krauze M, VanderWeele R, Goel G, Ramineni G, Antoni M,
Vodovotz Y, Walker J, Tohme S, Billiar T, Gellar DA. Patient, family caregiver, and economic outcomes of an integrated screening and novel stepped collaborative care intervention in the oncology setting in the USA (CARES): a randomised, parallel, phase 3 trial. The Lancet; March 12, 2024. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(24)00015-1
Swart NC, Ferrell BR, Eche IJ, Lazenby M. Relationship Between Quality of Life and Symptom Burden in Patients With Cancer With and Without HIV in Botswana. Clin J Oncol Nurs. 2023 Jan 25;27(1):98-103. doi: 10.1188/23.CJON.98-103. PMID: 37677826.
Teckle P., McTaggart-Cowan H., Van der Hoek K., Chia S., Melosky B., Gelmon K., Peacock S. Mapping the FACT-G cancer-specific quality of life instrument to the EQ-5D and SF-6D. Health and Quality of Life Outcomes 2013; 11(203).
Webster, K., Odom, L., Peterman, A., Lent, L., Cella, D. The functional assessment of chronic illness therapy (FACIT) measurement system: Validation of version 4 the core questionnaire. Quality of Life Research 1999; 8(7): 604.
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.
Winstead-Fry, P. & Schultz, A. Psychometric assessment of the functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy –General (FACT-G) in a rural sample. Cancer, 1997 79(12) 2446-2452.
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.
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