Dear Colleague,

We kindly ask you to participate in this survey to understand the current practice in collecting Quality of Life (QoL) information and other Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) either in your clinical practice or trials. This survey is carried out along with the Japanese Association for Chest Surgery.

Research Aims:
- To understand the current practice among the ESTS and JACS members in collecting QoL information and other PROMs both in their clinical practice and clinical trials.
- To analyze and compare potential practice changes since the previously published survey in 2015.
- To assess cultural and healthcare system differences between the two societal memberships in order to optimise PROMs' collection.
- To explore members’ preferences in collecting and implementing PROMs and QoL in particular in their practice and research.

All the questions relate exclusively to your opinions and practices. This survey will take less than 10 minutes.

Thank you,

Survey Steering Committee

ESTS: Cecilia Pompili, Nuria Novoa, Alessandro Bertani, Marcin Ostrowski
JACS: Shinnosuke Takamiya, Hiroyuki Suzuki, Masahiro Tsuboi, Shun-ichi Watanabe, Ichiro Yoshino, Hideo Ichimura, Aki Kobayashi
Medical Oncology: Hidehito Horinouchi

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1. Are you a member of:

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2. Years of experience as a board-certified thoracic surgeon?

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3. How many thoracic surgeons and general thoracic surgery trainees work in your department (including you)?

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4. Have you ever used Quality of Life questionnaires (QoL) or Patient-Reported Outcome Measures (PROMs) for your patients (either in clinical practice or within clinical trials)?
(if no, please skip to question 13)

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5. What is your purpose for collecting QoL or PROMs? (mark all that apply)

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6. Which PROM have you ever assessed? (mark all that apply)

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7. Which QoL or PROM instrument/questionnaire have you used? (mark all that apply)

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8. How are you collecting the QoL data? (mark all that apply)

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9. How do you administer the QoL questionnaire to patients? (mark all that apply)

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10. When do you collect QoL data? (mark all that apply)

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11. In which cases are you collecting QoL/PROMs, other than lung cancer ones? (mark all that apply)

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12. Are your patients given feedback about the evolution of their QoL or symptoms?

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13. How important would you rate the QoL assessment in thoracic surgical patients?

1 (Very unimportant) Neutral 5 (Very important)

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14. In your opinion, which is the most important PROM to collect in lung cancer surgical patients?

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15. In your opinion, which time point is the most important to assess lung cancer surgical patient’s QoL?

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16. In the context of multimodality treatment, at which time point is it most important to collect QoL data before surgery to assess most relevant symptoms/functions?

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17. In the context of multimodality treatment, at which time point is it most important to collect QoL data after surgery to assess most relevant symptoms/functions?

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18. In the context of multimodality treatment, which PROMs are important to collect to help and support patients in their oncological treatment? (mark all that apply)

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19. In your opinion, which of the following baseline and surgical variables may influence QoL analysis and are important to be recorded in PROM studies? (mark all that apply)

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20. In your opinion, which of the following items do you think would be important to include in a QoL questionnaire specific for thoracic surgical patients?

  Very unimportant Unimportant Neutral Important Very important
Dyspnoea
Immunotherapy/targeted therapy side effects
Coughing
Scar-related issues
Residual pain post surgery
Shoulder mobility post surgery
Use of long-term analgesia
Psychological symptoms

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21. For authorship purposes only, please provide your personal information below - as you would like to appear in the manuscript (these details will be dealt with confidentiality).
Those who opt not to write their name will not be listed among the collaborators.