Symptom Science includes research in three areas:
- prevention or treatment of acute or chronic symptoms and morbidities related to cancer, its treatment and caregiving (symptom management research);
- • effects on quality of life from cancer, its treatment and caregiving (quality of life research); and
- • end-of-life psychosocial issues, caregiving and treatment strategies (end-of-life research).
Study interventions are aimed at improving quality of life for patients facing problems related to a life-threatening cancer diagnosis, or at preventing and relieving suffering during cancer therapy by means of early identification, assessment, and treatment for pain and other physical, psychosocial, and spiritual problems.
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Initiatives
Cancer Treatment Tolerability Analysis Tools. Multidisciplinary team developed new methods for analyzing patient-reported outcomes in the setting of cancer clinical trials. The methods and tools created will better define patient tolerability to cancer treatment
Cardiotoxicity Research. As improvements in treatment have led to more cancer patients surviving longer, research is focusing on how side effects like cardiotoxicity affect cancer survivors. Researchers are investigating the health issues around cardiotoxicity, who is at risk, and how to reduce that risk.
Building Bridges in Cancer Symptom Science Webinars are a series of themed talks aimed at bringing together interdisciplinary researchers in cancer symptom science to share their expertise and further discussions in the field.
NCI Community Oncology Research Program (NCORP) is a clinical trials network of cancer professionals bringing research to populations across the country in the communities where most patients live. These include trials to evaluate therapies to prevent or treat a broad range of symptoms and/or toxicities associated with cancer, its treatment, and caregiving.
Training Program in Symptom Science
Cancer Prevention Fellowship Program (CPFP) provides advanced training to fellows to give them strong foundation in the field of cancer prevention and control.
Important Websites
HEAL Initiative. The Helping to End Addiction Long-Term Initiative, or HEAL Initiative is a National Institutes of Health-wide effort to speed scientific solutions to stem the national opioid public health crisis. Research into cancer pain management is included.
Symptom Management and Health-Related Quality of Life Steering Committee. This committee addresses the design, prioritization, and evaluation of concepts for phase 2 and phase 3 clinical trials to control cancer symptoms and cancer treatment side effects.
NCI Common Terminology Criterial for Adverse Events. Since 1982, the NCI Common Terminology Criteria has been the standard for Adverse Events reporting in the oncology community.
Patient-Reported Outcomes Version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE). This site was designed to provide information about PRO-CTCAE®, a patient-reported outcome measurement system developed by the National Cancer Institute to capture symptomatic adverse events in patients on cancer clinical trials.