MONDAY, June 5, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A patient-reported outcome (PRO) intervention for symptom monitoring is associated with improved overall survival for patients treated with chemotherapy for metastatic solid tumors, according to a research letter published online June 4 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The research was published to coincide with the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, held from June 2 to 6 in Chicago.
Ethan Basch, M.D., from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues examined overall survival associated with electronic patient-reported symptom monitoring versus usual care among patients initiating routine chemotherapy for metastatic solid tumors. A total of 766 participants were randomized to the usual care group or PRO group, assessed via a web-based PRO questionnaire platform. An e-mail alert was triggered to a clinical nurse when the PRO group participants reported a severe or worsening symptom.
Overall survival was assessed after 67 percent of the participants had died, at which time the median follow-up was seven years. The researchers found that the median overall survival was 31.2 and 26.0 months in the PRO and usual care groups, respectively (difference, five months; P = 0.03). The results remained significant in a multivariable model, with a hazard ratio of 0.83 (P = 0.04).
"Electronic patient-reported symptom monitoring may be considered for implementation as a part of high-quality cancer care," the authors write.
Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
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