Assessing Psychological Toxicity and Patient-Reported Distress as the Sixth Vital Sign in Cancer Care and Clinical Trials

Bibliographic Data

ID15745012
AuthorsThomas W LeBlanc (0000-0002-0546-7895, Duke Medical Center, corresponding author), Arif H Kamal (0000-0002-5235-9395, Duke Medical Center)
Year2017
Volume19
Issue5
Pages460-466
Publication date2017-05-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe AMA Journal of Ethic (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2376-6980 • E-ISSN: 2376-6980
PublisherAmerican Medical Association (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1001/journalofethics.2017.19.5.stas1-1705
PMID28553903
OpenAlexW2611455386
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited1

As the number of available cancer therapies continues to grow, there is increasing interest in their impact on cancer patients' lived experiences. Screening for distress is one way to measure psychological dimensions of cancer patients' experiences, and doing so is increasingly part of standard operations at major cancer centers across the US. To date, however, most clinical trials have not adequately captured patients' experiences as part of their outcome assessments, so clinicians lack data needed to guide their responses to psychological features of patients' illness experiences. As distress becomes the "sixth vital sign" in routine cancer care, we argue that clinical trials should assess patients' experiences in the same way that they robustly screen for adverse events and toxicities. New interventions are needed to address distress

Adverse effect · Cancer · Clinical trial · Distress · Intensive care medicine · Mental health · Pathology · Psychiatry · Psychological distress · Psychological intervention · Sign (mathematics · Cancer survivorship and care · Clinical Psychology · Medicine · Palliative Care and End-of-Life Issues · Patient-Provider Communication in Healthcare · Internal Medicine

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