Patient-reported outcomes essential to comparative effectiveness research

Patient perspective key to adequate evaluation of cancer treatment

2012-10-17

(Press-News.org) Chapel Hill, NC – Patient-reported outcomes should be a standard part of evaluating the comparative effectiveness of cancer treatments, according to recommendations put forward by a multi-institution research group.

In an early release article published this week online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, a research group led by Ethan Basch, MD, Director of the Cancer Outcomes Research Program at UNC Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, recommends that patient-reported symptoms and health-related quality of life measures should be assessed in comparative effectiveness studies designed to generate new evidence about cancer treatment. The article was written on behalf of the Center for Medical Technology Policy in Baltimore, MD.

Comparative effectiveness research is designed to inform health-care decisions by providing evidence on the effectiveness, benefits, and harms of different treatment options. The evidence is generated from research studies that compare drugs, medical devices, tests, surgeries, or ways to deliver health care.

"Comparative effectiveness research looks at how treatment options perform in a real-world setting, and is particularly important in cancer treatment, where patients are not only fighting their disease but also enduring treatments that may have a significant impact on their ability to function and their quality of life," said Basch.

"There is no way to adequately assess a treatment's impact on the patient without including their point of view, gleaned directly from asking about their experience in a consistent and scientifically-validated manner. Without this information, stakeholders – including patients, physicians and nurses, payers, researchers and regulators – have incomplete information for decision making about a given treatment."

The group recommends evaluation of a set of twelve core symptoms in studies in advanced or metastatic cancers, use of standard, validated measurements for patient-reported outcomes, to identify specific symptoms that may be relevant in studies of treatment for particular forms of cancer, and methods to gather the relevant data efficiently and effectively.

###The recommendations were formulated when Dr. Basch was a member of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York.

Bryce Reeve, PhD, a member of UNC Lineberger and associate professor of health policy and management at UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health was also a member of the team. Other researchers include Amy Abernethy, MD, from Duke University, C. Daniel Mullins, PhD, from the University of Maryland, Mary Lou Smith, JD, MBA, from the Research Advocacy Network, Stephen J. Coons, PhD, from the University of Arizona, Jeff Sloan, PhD, from the Mayo Clinic, Cynthia Chauhan and Wayland Eppard from the North Central Cancer Treatment Group Patient Advocacy Committee, Keith Wenzel from Perceptive Informatics, Elizabeth S. Frank from Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Stephen Raymond, PhD, from PHT Corporation and Joseph Lipscomb, PhD, from Emory University.

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Attack! Silent watchmen charge to defend the nervous system

2012-10-17

In many pathologies of the nervous system, there is a common event - cells called microglia are activated from surveillant watchmen into fighters. Microglia are the immune cells of the nervous system, ingesting and destroying pathogens and damaged nerve cells. Until now little was known about the molecular mechanisms of microglia activation despite this being a critical process in the body. Now new research from the Montreal Neurological Institute and Hospital – The Neuro - at McGill University provides the first evidence that mechanisms regulated by the Runx1 gene control ...

Nursing workloads multiply likelihood of death among black patients over white patients

2012-10-17

Older black patients are three times more likely than older white patients to suffer poorer outcomes after surgery, including death, when cared for by nurses with higher workloads, reports research from the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. The large-scale study showed higher nurse workloads negatively affected older surgical patients generally and that the rate was more significant in older black individuals. When the patient-to-nurse ratio increased above 5:1, the odds of patient death increased by 3 percent per additional patient among whites and by 10 percent ...

Endoscopic mucosal resection before radiofrequency ablation is equally effective compared with RFA alone for advanced Barrett's esophagus

2012-10-17

OAK BROOK, Ill. – October 16, 2012 – A new study shows that endoscopic mucosal resection (EMR) before radiofrequency ablation (RFA) is a safe and effective treatment option for patients with nodular Barrett's esophagus (BE) and advanced neoplasia. The performance of EMR before RFA was not associated with a diminished likelihood of success of therapy or an increased rate of stricture compared with those with advanced neoplasia undergoing RFA alone. The study appears in the October issue of GIE: Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, the monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal of the ...

NASA must reinvest in nanotechnology research, according to new Rice University paper

2012-10-17

The United States may lose its leadership role in space to other countries unless it makes research and development funding and processes -- especially in nanotechnology -- a renewed and urgent priority, according to a new paper from Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy. The paper, "NASA's Relationship with Nanotechnology: Past, Present and Future Challenges," investigates how NASA has both guided and defunded cutting-edge nanotechnology development since 1996 at its own research facilities and in its collaborations with university scientists and laboratories. ...

Scientists identify likely origins of vertebrate air breathing

2012-10-17

Fairbanks, Alaska—University of Alaska Fairbanks scientists have identified what they think is the ancestral trait that allowed for the evolution of air breathing in vertebrates. They will present their research at the 42nd annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience Oct. 17 in New Orleans. "To breathe air with a lung you need more than a lung, you need neural circuitry that is sensitive to carbon dioxide," said Michael Harris, a UAF neuroscientist and lead researcher on a project investigating the mechanisms that generate and control breathing. "It's the neural ...

Targeting cancers' 'addiction' to cell-cycle proteins shuts down tumors in mice

2012-10-17

BOSTON—In what they say is a promising and highly selective treatment strategy, scientists at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute have safely shut down breast cancer and a form of leukemia in mice by targeting abnormal proteins to which the cancers are "addicted," according to a new study. Even though the investigators genetically silenced the proteins or blocked them with a drug in normal as well as cancerous tissues, the animals remained healthy, they report in the Oct. 16 issue of the journal Cancer Cell. Peter Sicinski, MD, PhD, of Dana-Farber is the paper's senior author. The ...

Scientists to EPA: Include women in reproductive health research

2012-10-17

CHICAGO --- A team of Northwestern University scientists will meet with Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrators in Washington D.C. Oct. 18 to advocate for important changes in the agency's guidelines for reproductive health research. "The problem is current research assessing the risk of toxins on reproductive health is not being uniformly investigated in both sexes and across the lifespan," said Kate Timmerman, program director of the Oncofertility Consortium of Northwestern University, who will be one of the scientists meeting with the EPA. The reproductive ...

Political empowerment fading for black Americans in the 'Age of Obama'

2012-10-17

Hailed by some as the "end of race as we know it" and the beginning of a "post-racial" America, the 2008 election of Barack Obama sparked a measurable bump in feelings of political empowerment among black Americans. But those sentiments have faded considerably over the last year or so, according to a new analysis of political survey data, with the sharpest declines in perceived political power coming among blacks who identify themselves as conservatives or "born again" Christians. "The election of a black American to the U.S. presidency did seem to empower African Americans, ...

Obese teen boys have up to 50 percent less testosterone than lean boys, UB study finds

2012-10-17

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- A study by the University at Buffalo shows for the first time that obese males ages 14 to 20 have up to 50 percent less total testosterone than do normal males of the same age, significantly increasing their potential to be impotent and infertile as adults. The paper was published online as an accepted article in Clinical Endocrinology. The authors are the same researchers in the University at Buffalo's School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences who first reported in 2004 the presence of low testosterone levels, known as hypogonadism, in obese, type ...

Common birth control device may be cost-effective treatment for early endometrial cancer

2012-10-17

AUGUSTA, Ga. – A common birth control device is effective in treating early-stage endometrial cancer in morbidly obese and high-risk surgery patients, said Georgia Health Sciences University Cancer Center researchers, and could lead to a cost-effective treatment for all women with this cancer type. Endometrial cancer, which starts in the lining of the uterus, is the third most common gynecologic cancer, striking more than 47,000 American women every year, particularly the obese. "Total hysterectomy, sometimes with removal of lymph nodes, is the most common treatment ...

In small preliminary study, fearful pet dogs exhibited significantly different microbiomes and metabolic molecules to non-fearful dogs, suggesting the gut-brain axis might be involved in fear behavior

Examination of Large Language Model "red-teaming" defines it as a non-malicious team-effort activity to seek LLMs' limits and identifies 35 different techniques used to test them

Most microplastics in French bottled and tap water are smaller than 20 µm - fine enough to pass into blood and organs, but below the EU-recommended detection limit

Patient-reported outcomes essential to comparative effectiveness research

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES: