Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) assessments are a cornerstone of outcome evaluations for patients with cancer. The aim of this project was to assess patients with cancer in Lubumbashi/Democratic Republic of the Congo and: (1) evaluate what constitutes a clinically important health problem, (2) evaluate HRQoL and (3) compare HRQoL to controls.

Cross-sectional, prospective study.

Patient recruitment took place in 12 hospitals in Lubumbashi.

Inclusion criteria were a secured diagnosis of cancer, aged 18 years and above, no serious cognitive impairments.

(1) Semi-structured interviews with patients and healthcare professionals were conducted to investigate aspects of clinical importance. (2) The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30) was employed to quantitatively assess HRQoL; (3) an exploratory comparison of HRQoL data to Spanish controls, multinational reference data and the European general population data is performed.

(1) 20 patients (x-age=55.0 years; 70.0% female) and 10 healthcare professionals were interviewed. Social isolation, need for help/care and worries were frequently mentioned aspects making a health problem clinically important. (2) 103 patients (x-age=54.0 years; 67.0% female) with various cancer types were assessed. The prevalence of clinically important problems ranged from 26.2 % for fatigue to 94.1% for financial problems. (3) Compared to matched Spanish controls (n=207), symptom burden was more pervasive (OR 1.18 for insomnia to 28.0 for financial problems) than functional health limitations (max. OR 2.12 for role function). While adjusting HRQoL scores for age, sex, comorbidities and treatment intention decreased effect sizes of score difference across countries for 14 out of 16 scales, statistically significant differences across countries (p<0.05) remained for ten scales even after adjusting for covariates.

Clinical characteristics, aspects of clinical importance and HRQoL profiles of patients with cancer in Lubumbashi were reported. Aspects of clinical importance were identified, whereas a high symptom burden was reported by patients with cancer in Lubumbashi. Enhancing symptom management in Lubumbashi may alleviate symptom burden of patients with cancer.