Lower extremity lymphedema in patients with gynecologic cancer: Validation of the Gynecologic Cancer Lymphedema Questionnaire (GCLQ) in German language and investigation of lymphedema real-world treatment

The Gynecologic Cancer Lymphedema Questionnaire (GCLQ) is an established patient-reported outcome measure for lower extremity lymphedema (LEL) in gynecologic oncology. We aimed to validate the GCLQ in German language (GCLQ-GER) for lymphedema detection in German-speaking patients and also investigated real-world patterns of lymphedema treatment.

The GCLQ was translated from English into German in accordance with the standards of a professional translation process. Subsequently, the questionnaire was administered in a prospective observational study including 102 patients who had undergone lymph node dissection (LND) within gynecologic cancer surgery. Various test quality criteria were calculated for the GCLQ-GER. As gold standard of testing methods, patients were clinically evaluated for LEL, and limb volume measurements were taken. Further data for lymphedema treatment were collected in patients with lymphedema diagnosis.

Patients with LEL had increased GCLQ-GER total scores (mean 7.27) compared to patients without LEL (mean 1.81), p < 0.001. High diagnostic accuracy was indicated by the large area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) of 0.874 (95% CI 0.802–0.946). Based on sensitivity and specificity values ≥ 79.0%, the GCLQ total score ≥ 4 was determined as the optimal cut-off value to identify LEL. Excellent internal consistency was demonstrated by Cronbach’s alpha of 0.876. The clinical examination revealed a LEL prevalence of 48.0% (n = 49), and 85.7% (n = 42) of these patients received treatment.

The GCLQ-GER is a valid and feasible patient-reported outcome measure for lymphedema detection in German-speaking gynecologic cancer survivors. Its clinical introduction could improve secondary prevention of lymphedema and real-world treatment.