Challenge
Lymphoma is a commonly life-threatening blood cancer affecting Australians of all ages. The treatment for lymphoma causes many distressing side effects, including significant physical and mental health stress. Patients are often asked questions about how they are feeling, and if they are experiencing symptoms from their cancer or the treatment. These can be recorded via structured questionnaires called a Patient-Reported Outcome Measure (PRO/M). PROMs have been used for decades to better understand how cancer and the treatments impact patients.
Focus
Modern lymphoma treatments are complicated and have many new side effects doctors have not seen before. Current PROMs have not been designed with this in mind, and therefore do not capture all symptoms of newer therapies. Disappointingly however, sometimes PROs are not collected from patients, or the data that is taken is not reported at all. This creates difficulties in using patient feedback to guide treatment and future drug development.
Impact
The research will examine the current gaps in PRO collection and reporting and identify ways to use PROMs more meaningfully in lymphoma care. The research will lead to more uniform and useful PRO reporting guideline, or framework, which more accurately illustrates patient-reported symptoms during treatment.
Researcher
Elizabeth is a clinical haematologist and early career researcher with interest in haematological malignancies, and most specifically lymphoma. Dr Goodall has worked at both the Austin and Monash hospitals throughout her clinical and laboratory training and is currently completing a two-year lymphoma clinical trials fellowship at Monash Health, where she is a sub-investigator on more than 100 active clinical trials. This experience has fostered her interest in the patient’s experience throughout their cancer journey, from diagnosis, through treatment and then during the follow-up phase.
