Patient-reported Outcome Measures in Radiotherapy: Clinical Advances and Research Opportunities in Measurement for Survivorship

Cancer survivorship: an integral part of Europe's research agenda

“…Second cancers may also develop as a consequence of radiation therapy (Hauptmann et al, 2016;Teepen et al, 2018). Information on long-term side effects and impact on HRQOL of radiation therapy is fragmented and, for some cancers, lacking altogether (Faithfull et al, 2015;Loos et al, 2013). Nevertheless, technical advances in modern radiation therapy are often aimed at providing more targeted and precise radiation fields that spare healthy tissue, and thus decrease side effects (Baumann et al, 2016).…”

Do Patient-reported Outcome Measures Agree with Clinical and Photographic Assessments of Normal Tissue Effects after Breast Radiotherapy? The Experience of the Standardisation of Breast Radiotherapy (START) Trials in Early Breast Cancer

“…Photographic assessments of a change in breast appearance from a preradiotherapy baseline have become increasingly used in randomised trials of radiotherapy as they are usually scored by a small number of observers blind to patient identity, treatment allocation and year of follow-up, unlike the clinical assessments, which are scored by a large number of individuals in a multicentre study [5]. In parallel, the use of carefully developed and validated quality of life instruments in psychosocial research and phase III cancer clinical trials has expanded considerably [6e8], together with a growing interest in the use of patient-reported outcome measures (PROMS) in routine follow-up [9]. With an increasing use of PROMs in cancer clinical trials [10,11], it is worth asking how comparable and interpretable are the different methods of assessment, and whether PROMs could become the primary means of scoring late normal tissue effects (NTE) of breast radiotherapy in trials.…”

Symptom clusters for revising scale membership in the analysis of prostate cancer patient reported outcome measures: a secondary data analysis of the Medical Research Council RT01 trial (ISCRTN47772397)

“…In radiotherapy, PROMs are used to obtain an insight into patients’ perceptions of the impact of their cancer and the consequences of treatment [1]. The advantage of PROMs over other patient monitoring techniques is that they provide information as perceived by patients.…”

“…These are all key challenges of modern oncology and PROMs play a strategic role in this as they enable tailored treatments and outcomes according to priorities, risks or concerns of individual patients [8, 9]. However, the successful application of PROMs in this area requires a deeper understanding of the methods for extracting information carried within PROMs [1]. PROMs data are complex, with large number of variables (HRQOL, symptoms, function, bother, performance or heath concerns) measured on different scales (with different levels, ratios or frequencies) and with confounders that can be attributed to cancer treatment or individual patient characteristics.…”