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.
