Patient-reported outcomes in cancer care – hearing the patient voice at greater volume

A selection of clinically relevant papers from other journals. The summaries on this page have been chosen and edited by Paul Hellyer. In this issue Paul chooses a selection of papers from the recent Springer Nature Change the World One Article at a Time initiative .

Abstract

Clinical outcomes improve when the patent has input into their care

Main

LeBlanc T, Abernethy A. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 2017; 14: 763–772. 10.1038/nrclinonc.2017.153

In the field of cancer care, patient-reported outcomes (PROs) provide a direct measurement of the patient's experience, including symptom burden, mood, quality of life and distress, amongst others, providing information which is not collected by examination and other clinic-based tests.

Collecting this data electronically (ePROs) is feasible on clinics, is easy to use using 1-10 ordinal scales and yes/no answers. Patients value the opportunity to tell their stories and clinicians frequently underestimate the severity of patients' symptoms.

Clinicians need to value the feedback received from PROs and recognise that the data gathered is 'more practical, valid and reliable' than oral feedback and clinical observations.

Evidence suggests that collection of ePRO data facilitates the development of health care services to be more patient centred and improves both the quality of care and clinical outcomes for individuals.