Older Adults with Advanced Cancer Reported Pain not Captured by clinician-graded CTCAE

Older patients with cancer frequently suffer from pain and often receive inadequate pain management [[1]]. The National Cancer Institute’s (NCI) Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAE) is the standard approach used by clinicians and trialists to report adverse events (AEs) during cancer therapy, including pain. However, clinicians and trialists using the CTCAE often underestimate the significance and severity of adverse events compared to patient reports [[2]]. The patient-reported outcomes CTCAE (PRO-CTCAE) was designed by the NCI to be used concurrently with the CTCAE to comprehensively capture patient-reported symptomatic AEs [[3]]. Studies in older adults assessing agreement between PRO- and clinician-graded CTCAE focusing on pain in older adults are limited. The aim of this study was to assess the concordance of clinician-graded pain CTCAE to patient-reported pain by PRO-CTCAE in older patients with advanced cancer.

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