Symptom Monitoring With Patient-Reported Outcomes During Routine Cancer Treatment: A Randomized Controlled Trial

In this trial, patients with solid tumours (n=766) were randomised to report 12 common symptoms via a tablet computer or receive usual care. It was shown that symptom self-reporting was associated with a range of clinical benefits including survival.

Self-reporting, which generated an email warning when symptoms worsened and went to nursing staff and print-outs which informed clinic management was associated with the following benefits:

• Improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQL): 34% v 18% (primary end-point)

• Lower incidence of a decrease in quality of life: 38% v 53%

• A lower overall decrease in HRQL: 1.4- v 7.1-point drop

• Less frequent admission to ER: (34% v 41%) or hospital (45% vs 49%)

• Remaining on chemotherapy longer (mean, 8.2 v 6.3 months)

• Higher rates of survival at 1 year: 75% vs 69%

• Higher durations of quality-adjusted survival (mean of 8.7 v. 8.0 months)

 

In an associated editorial the author highlights that the intervention was shown to be more effective among computer-inexperienced patients which suggests opportunities for routine patient reported outcomes assessment to add value in managing potentially vulnerable populations.