Additional Value of Patient-Reported Symptom Monitoring in Cancer Care: A Systematic Review of the Literature

SIMPLE SUMMARY: The additional value of patient-reported symptom monitoring in routine cancer is still under discussion. With this in mind, we have reviewed recent evidence on the benefits of this strategy. The evidence examined illustrates that bringing systematic patient feedback into the oncology consultation provides objective advantages over usual care, such as better symptom control, early detection of tumor recurrence, and extended chemotherapy use. Such care improvements ultimately entail an outstanding survival benefit for advanced cancer patients, an increase in their global quality of life, and eventually, medical cost savings. Monitoring patient-reported symptoms might also have other implications in clinical practice, such as promoting patient disease awareness or enhancing patient–physician communication and relationships. Notwithstanding these advantages, there are still logistical barriers that prevent its widespread implementation—especially in the electronic modality. In addition, the real-world effectiveness and the cost-effectiveness of this strategy are yet to be proven in different settings. ABSTRACT: Background: To describe the benefit of patient-reported symptom monitoring on clinical, other patient-reported, and economic outcomes. Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review using Medline/PubMed, limited to original articles published between 2011 and 2021 in English and Spanish, and focused on the benefit of patient-reported symptom monitoring on cancer patients. Results: We identified 16 reports that deal with the benefit of patient-reported symptom monitoring (collected mostly electronically) on different outcomes. Five studies showed that patient-reported symptom surveillance led to significantly improved survival compared with usual care—mainly through better symptom control, early detection of tumor recurrence, and extended chemotherapy use. Additionally, three evaluations demonstrated an improvement in Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) associated with this monitoring strategy, specifically by reducing symptom severity. Additionally, six studies observed that this monitoring approach prevented unplanned emergency room visits and hospital readmissions, leading to a substantial decrease in healthcare usage. Conclusions: There is consistent evidence across the studies that patient-reported symptom monitoring might entail a substantial survival benefit for cancer patients, better HRQoL, and a considerable decrease in healthcare usage. Nonetheless, more studies should be conducted to demonstrate their effectiveness in addition to their cost-effectiveness in clinical practice.