Background:

Patients diagnosed with cancer have significant levels of emotional distress related with oncological disease. The Distress Management is a tool designed by the NCCN (The National Comprehensive Cancer Network) for the measurement of emotional distress that requires psychosocial care in patients with cancer as part of the usual processes in care.

Objective:

Translate and cross-cultural comparison the English version of the Distress Management scale of NCCN version 2.2018 to Colombian Spanish.

Methods:

The transcultural translation and adaptation process was developed following the methodological recommendations of the EORTC quality of life group (European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer), performing an initial translation, inverse translation and a pilot test involving 10 patients treated at the National Institute of Cancerology Bogotá.

Results:

The translation of the thermometer was carried out, finding some discrepancies in the direct and inverse translation, reaching a consensus in each stage of the process. In the pilot test, the scale was answered between 5 to 9 minutes, there was difficulty in understanding 6 items in the list of problems. It was decided to add "tiredness" to the item of fatigue, "psychoactive" to the item of substance use and to make an explanation of the instructions prior to the patients reading and filling the instrument.

Conclusion:

The transcultural adaptation of the Distress Management of the NCCN version 2.2018 was made to a Colombian Spanish version. This version can be used to determine the psychometric properties when applied to cancer patients in Colombia.

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