Cancer-specific utility instrument for health economic evaluations: A synopsis of the EORTC QLU-C10D user manual and current validity evidence.

The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Utility - Core 10 Dimensions (QLU-C10D) adds a preference-based scoring algorithm to the EORTC measurement portfolio. It is built on the most widely used health-related quality of life (HRQoL) measure in oncology, the EORTC Quality of Life Questionnaire - Core 30 (QLQ-C30), allowing for the calculation of both HRQoL profiles and health utilities. This is an important advancement for integrating cancer-specific values into health economic evaluations and decision making, offering greater content validity and statistical power than some generic measures. This article presents an outline of the EORTC QLU-C10D User Manual to inform health-technology bodies, academic researchers, and industry, on the why and how of using this instrument for utility measurement. It covers basic concepts, proper use of the tool, including administration and scoring. Further, we summarise the presently published valuation studies, country-specific value sets, and body of evidence about psychometric properties. Current methodological questions are discussed, including mapping between utility measures and adaptions of generic measures for use in cancer populations. Taking into account empirical studies on psychometric properties, like content and construct validity, and comparisons with generic measures, we argue that the QLU-C10D is a reliable and valid instrument for cancer populations. Without imposing additional patient and administrative burden it has the potential to support health economic decisions in cancer by providing high-quality cancer-specific utility scores, to complement the more detailed HRQoL information from the QLQ-C30.