Patient-reported outcome measures in definitive chemoradiation for non-small cell lung cancer

Patient-reported outcome measure (PROM) is an umbrella term that refers to any report on a health status measure that is reported directly from the patient, without the influence of clinicians (1). Heath status measures assessed by PROMs broadly include 3 categories: (I) overall measures of health-related quality of life (HR-QOL); (II) functional measures that may include but are not limited to physical, emotional, social, or cognitive well-being outcomes; (III) symptom-specific outcomes measures that may be disease-related or treatment-related (2). PROMS are of particular interest as physician-reported measures are known to under report important symptoms and toxicities from therapy and its associated level of burden on patients (3). Furthermore, PROMS have been shown to more closely associate with cancer patients’ overall well-being and function when compared to physician-reported treatment measures (4).