2023 Volume 12 Issue 1 Pages 18-28
Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) are defined as “any report of the status of a patient’s health condition that comes directly from the patient, without interpretation of the patient’s response by a clinician or anyone else.” Studies have shown that when evaluating quality of life (QOL) and adverse effects, there are critical gaps between PROs and clinician-reported outcomes. As such, there is increasing interest in integrating PROs in clinical studies and routine practice. Recently, two nationwide multicenter surveys were conducted to identify factors correlated with QOL, such as chronic GVHD and employment status. A single-center prospective study showed a significant relationship between pre-HCT QOL and post-HCT survival outcomes. Multiple studies have shown that systematic monitoring of PROs improves patient-clinician communication, symptom management, and overall survival. PRO/QOL may be incorporated as a variable in post-HCT registry database to enable us to identify clinically important factors to improve QOL. In clinical care at the individual level, we may be able to use PRO measures for screening at-risk patients. Because many of long-term post-HCT outcomes, such as secondary cancer and employment status, will be reported as PROs, it is important to establish an efficient workflow to collect PROs and provide effective interventions based on them.
