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Editorial
August 24, 2020

Patient-Reported Outcomes in Pediatric Oncology: The Patient Voice as a Gold Standard

Author Affiliations
  • 1Division of Oncology, Department of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 2Department of Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
  • 3Center for Pediatric Clinical Effectiveness, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
  • 4Cancer and Blood Disorders Center, Seattle Children’s Hospital, Seattle, Washington
  • 5Department of Pediatrics, University of Washington School of Medicine, Seattle
  • 6Center for Clinical and Translational Research, Seattle Children’s Research Institute, Seattle, Washington
  • 7Cambia Palliative Care Center of Excellence, University of Washington, Seattle
JAMA Pediatr. 2020;174(11):e202868. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2020.2868

More than 40 000 children undergo cancer treatment in the United States annually,1 and all patients experience symptoms and adverse effects from their therapy or their disease. Clinical use of patient-reported outcomes (PROs), which are standardized reports of a patient’s health condition directly from the patient, has the potential to alleviate some of this experience, allow patients and their caregivers to feel more in control of their well-being, help their health care team better control symptoms, and improve outcomes. In adults, using PRO tools to monitor symptoms and toxic effects during chemotherapy improves patients’ quality of life, decreases their number of hospitalizations, and lengthens their life.2,3

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