Review Symptom research in gynecologic oncology: A review of available measurement tools (abstract)

 define: heterogeneity - diverse and not comparable

 Results

Nine studies examined symptom assessment, quality-of-life assessment, or symptom indexes for various gynecologic cancers. Studies varied in design, patient profiles, symptoms assessed, and outcomes measured. Meta-analysis was not performed due to heterogeneity in the studies.

Conclusion

Although pain is well-studied and well-characterized, other disease-specific and general systemic symptoms of gynecologic cancers need better understanding and assessment. Accordingly, assessment of symptoms throughout the course of disease is crucial for treatment decisions and outcomes monitoring for patients with gynecologic cancer. This is especially true for survivors of gynecologic cancer, for patients whose treatment was unsuccessful, or for choosing between treatments with comparable survival outcomes. However, measurement and assessment of cancer-related symptoms is challenging because of the complex interaction between disease progression, multi-modality treatments, and symptoms. In this review, we evaluate the currently available symptom assessment tools for gynecologic cancers, along with quality-of-life assessment tools that include symptom items, and we give recommendations for further research.