Personalized Care Pathways for Bowel Symptoms in Rectal Cancer Patients_contributing Factors (Treatable)

Bowel symptoms after rectal cancer treatment

To ensure that patients can report all their bowel symptoms where they suffer from, a valid, reliable, user-friendly, and easy-to-interpret electronic bowel diary has been developed in another research project for which approval has already been obtained from the Ethical Committee of the University Hospitals Leuven (S68746). This electronic bowel diary will be used to map out all bowel complaints.

The evaluation of Quality of Life (QoL) related to bowel symptoms after rectal cancer treatment

Faecal Incontinence Quality of Life questionnaire (FIQL) will be used for the evaluation of QoL related to faecal incontinence problems. The FIQL is a reliable and valid 41-item questionnaire, resulting in 4 subscales: Lifestyle, Coping/behavior, Depression/Self Perception and Embarrassment. The Scales ranges from 1 to 5, with a 1 indicating a lower functional status of quality of life. This questionnaire is also validated in Dutch.

The evaluation of overall Quality of Life (QoL) after rectal cancer treatment

EuroQol 5 Dimensions, 5 Levels (EQ-5D-5L) will be used to assess overall quality of life (QoL). The EQ-5D-5L is a reliable and valid 6-item questionnaire, consisting of two parts: the social perspective and the individual perspective of one's own health. In the social perspective, the health state is converted into a value set with a score ranging from 0 to 1, where 0 represents being dead and 1 represents full health. The individual perspective assesses the respondent's own perception of their health, with a score ranging from 0 to 100. This questionnaire is validated in Dutch and widely used to measure general health-related quality of life.

The predictive value of 'defecation functions' measured with the MSKCC-BFI for the development of persistent bowel symptoms and consequences of bowel symptoms at 12 months post-surgery or post-stoma closure

Defecation functions will be assessed with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Centre Bowel Function Instrument (MSKCC-BFI). The MSKCC-BFI is a broad bowel specific questionnaire (18 items), resulting in three subscales, four single items and one total score for bowel function.

The predictive value of 'defecation functions' measured with the LARS score for the development of persistent bowel symptoms and consequences of bowel symptoms at 12 months post-surgery or post-stoma closure

Defecation functions will be assessed with the LARS score. The LARS score is a short questionnaire, consisting of 5 items, stratifying patients into no, minor or major LARS. This questionnaire has been validated in Dutch.

The predictive value of 'defecation functions' measured with the PAC-SYM for the development of persistent bowel symptoms and consequences of bowel symptoms at 12 months post-surgery or post-stoma closure

Defecation functions will be assessed with the Patient Assessment of Constipation-Symptoms questionnaire (PAC-SYM). The PAC-SYM is a validated constipation-specific questionnaire of 12 items that reflect stool, rectal and abdominal symptoms. Patients report the severity of each symptom on a Likert scale from 0 (absent) to 4 (very severe). This questionnaire has been validated in Dutch.

The predictive value of 'baseline age' for the development of persistent bowel symptoms and consequences of bowel symptoms at 12 months post-surgery or post-stoma closure

Information concerning the patient age will be derived from the medical file.