MDASI Thyroid Cancer Module
The MD Anderson Symptom Inventory for thyroid cancer (MDASI-THY) is a disease-specific module. Use the MDASI-THY to assess the severity of symptoms experienced by patients with thyroid cancer and the interference with daily living caused by these symptoms.
Along with the core MDASI’s 13 symptom items and 6 interference items, the MDASI-THY also assesses 6 symptoms specific to thyroid cancer.
| Core MDASI Symptoms | Thyroid Cancer Symptoms | MDASI Interference |
|---|---|---|
| Pain | Hoarseness | Relations with other people |
| Fatigue | Problem with feeling hot | Enjoyment of life |
| Nausea | Problem with feeling cold | Mood |
| Disturbed sleep | Problem with racing heartbeat | Walking |
| Distress (feeling upset) | Diarrhea or loose stools | Activity |
| Shortness of breath | Difficulty swallowing | Work (including housework) |
| Difficulty remembering | ||
| Lack of appetite | ||
| Drowsiness | ||
| Dry mouth | ||
| Sadness | ||
| Vomiting | ||
| Numbness/tingling |
Order the MDASI-THY
Use our convenient online form to order the MDASI-THY for use in your clinical research, clinical practice, funded and non-funded academic research, commercial research, or reproduction in educational materials or other publications.
MDASI-THY Features
- Purpose: To assess the severity of multiple thyroid cancer-related symptoms and the impact of these symptoms on daily functioning
- Population: Patients with symptoms caused by thyroid cancer and its treatment
- Assessment areas: Severity of multiple symptoms and the impact of symptoms on daily functioning during the last 24 hours
- Method: Self-report or interview with research staff; paper-and-pencil or electronic data entry*
- Time required: Five minutes or less
- Scoring: Please see the MDASI User Guide
- Reliability: Cronbach alpha reliability ranges from 0.76 to 0.92
*Electronic data capture offers several benefits:
- Allows symptom monitoring when the patient is away from the hospital
- Is convenient for patients, who can choose web access, personalized patient portals, or smartphones to access questionnaires
- Minimizes missing data, especially in longitudinal studies
- Provides accurate, real-time symptom data at expected time points
- Generates immediate feedback, potentially allowing caregivers to address severe symptoms more effectively
MDASI-THY Language Versions
Click on a linked language to view a sample in PDF format.
Don't see a language you need? Contact us at symptomresearch@mdanderson.org.
| Psychometrically and Linguistically Validated | Linguistically Validated |
|---|---|
| English | Arabic |
| Belarusian | |
| Bengali | |
| Danish | |
| Dutch | |
| French | |
| German | |
| Greek | |
| Gujarati | |
| Hebrew | |
| Hindi | |
| Hungarian | |
| Italian | |
| Kannada | |
| Korean | |
| Malayalam | |
| Marathi | |
| Polish | |
| Portuguese (Brazil) |
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| Portuguese (Portugal) |
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| Russian | |
| Spanish | |
| Swedish | |
| Tamil | |
| Telugu |
MDASI User Guide
In response to the US Food and Drug Administration's 2009 guidance for the pharmaceutical industry on the use of patient-reported outcomes measures in medical product development to support labeling claims, we have prepared a MDASI User Guide to document the development and psychometric properties of the MDASI and its modules. The User Guide addresses the recommendations in the FDA guidance and establishes the MDASI's adequacy as a measure to support medical product claims.
Selected MDASI-THY References
Validation
Hu ZY, Gou JX, Cai M, Zhang YE. Translation and validation of M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory-Thyroid Cancer module in Chinese thyroid cancer patients: a cross-sectional and methodological study. BMC Cancer 2(1):924, 2022
Gning I, Trask PC, Mendoza TR, et al. Development and initial validation of the thyroid cancer module of the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory. Oncology 76(1): 59-68, 2009.
Cleeland CS, Mendoza TR, Wang XS, et al. Assessing symptom distress in cancer: the M. D. Anderson Symptom Inventory. Cancer 89:1634-1646, 2000.
Clinical Application
Gunn AH, Frisco N, Thomas SM, et al. Patient-reported outcomes following total thyroidectomy for Graves' disease. Thyroid 32(1):54-64, 2022.
Dadu R, Hu MI, Cleeland C, et al. Efficacy of the natural clay, calcium aluminosilicate anti-diarrheal, in reducing medullary thyroid cancer-related diarrhea and its effects on quality of life: a pilot study. Thyroid 25(10):1085-90, 2015.
Methodology
Uslar V, Becker C, Weyhe D, Tabriz N. Thyroid disease-specific quality of life questionnaires - a systematic review. Endocrinol Diabetes Metab 5(5):e357, 2022.
Moss L, Cox C, Wadsley J, et al. Medullary thyroid cancer patient's assessment of quality of life tools: results from the QaLM Study. Eur Thyroid J 10(1):72-78, 2021.
Every MDASI module contains:
all 13 MDASI core symptoms...
pain, fatigue, nausea, disturbed sleep, distress, shortness of breath, difficulty remembering, lack of appetite, drowsiness, dry mouth, sadness, vomiting, numbness/tingling
...and all 6 MDASI interference items
general activity, mood, work, relations with others, walking, enjoyment of life
We based the MDASI-THY on literature review, focus group discussions with patients and experts, and ‘cognitive debriefing’ of patients who completed the questionnaire. Proper symptom assessment over the course of thyroid cancer has benefits for both clinical care and research.
Ibrahima Gning, Dr.P.H.
Senior Informatics Analyst, MD Anderson