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Issues of Importance to Breast Cancer Patients

What information do patients want?

Publish date:: June 2, 2015

Patient-reported outcome measures that only evaluate symptoms are not responding to what patients say they need, according to an anonymous, cross-sectional web-based survey of 1,072 women with a diagnosis of breast cancer. Researchers found:

The top 5 issues were all global issues, rather than symptoms
• Maintaining quality of life
• Maintaining independence
• Ability to perform normal activities
• Ability to concentrate
• Ability to sleep
Specific symptoms among the 10 highest rated items were:
• Fatigue
• Depression
• Anxiety
• Shortness of breath
• Pain

Citation: Hollen PJ, Msaouel P, Gralla RJ. Determining issues of importance for the evaluation of quality of life and patient-reported outcomes in breast cancer: results of a survey of 1072 patients [Published online ahead of print May 17, 2015]. Breast Cancer Res Treat. doi:10.1007/s10549-015-3420-5.

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