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TUESDAY, Jan. 8, 2019 (HealthDay News) — In prostate cancer, patient- and clinician-based cumulative toxicity scores comprising all-grade adverse events (AEs) better reflect the impact on patient quality of life (QoL) than scores comprising high-grade AEs only, according to a study published in the December issue of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Claudia S.E.W. Schuurhuizen, M.D., from the VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues examined the impact of patient- and clinician-reported cumulative toxicity on QoL among 184 patients with metastatic castration-naive prostate cancer. Patients completed questionnaires on AEs at three and six months and QoL at baseline, three months, and six months. During clinical visits, clinicians reported AEs.<\/p>\n
The researchers observed an association for clinician-reported all-grade AEs and severity score with deteriorated physical QoL (B, \u22122.2 and \u22121.4, respectively), while no correlation was seen for the total number of high-grade AEs. Significant associations were seen for all patient-reported scores with deteriorated physical and global QoL. Patient-reported toxicity scores correlated more with QoL outcomes than did clinician-reported scores; the strongest association was seen for all-grade AEs and severity scores as well as cumulative toxicity scores.<\/p>\n
“These patient-reported outcomes appear to have a better correlation to patient quality of life,” Schuurhuizen said in a statement. “Our results also suggest that clinicians shouldn’t lose sight of lower-grade adverse events. We want physicians to be more aware of how addressing lower-grade toxicities can be just as important as higher ones for optimizing physical health status.”<\/p>\n