Understanding the Impact of Multiple Symptoms: A Symptom Burden Consortium

描述（由申请人提供）：癌症患者某些症状（如疼痛和抑郁）的评估在癌症人群中相对成熟;然而，癌症患者和癌症幸存者通常具有其他令人痛苦的症状，如恶病质、睡眠障碍、疲劳和认知障碍。 对这些症状的测量正在发展，但往往不太清楚。 测量这些症状中的任何一个都可能无法捕捉到患者正在经历的痛苦负担。 因此，在实践和研究中同时测量多种症状是一个需要进一步研究的领域。这个由德克萨斯大学症状研究系组织的联盟。D.安德森癌症中心，提供了一个场所的科学介绍和合作讨论的发展连贯的测量方法，将允许比较症状负担的临床试验，流行病学研究和临床实践。 这次会议的具体目标是： 明确描述症状负担的概念;在制药工业科学家、联邦政策制定者和学术研究调查者之间提供关于改善科学基础设施以管理由多种症状引起的复杂问题的协作讨论。促进合作和跨学科研究，以更好地了解多种症状的病因机制。在高疾病负担的背景下，检查和标准化特定症状的测量方法。 撰写一份科学文献，总结在高疾病负担背景下对特定症状标准化测量方法的建议。该文件将是联合体参与者之间的合作成果，并将提交给一份领先的科学同行评审期刊。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The assessment of certain symptoms in cancer patients such as pain and depression is relatively mature within the cancer population; however, cancer patients and cancer survivors often have other distressing symptoms, such as cachexia, sleep disturbance, fatigue, and cognitive impairment. Measurement of these symptoms is evolving but is often less clearly delineated. Measuring any one of those symptoms may fall short of capturing the burden of distress that the patient is experiencing. Thus, measuring multiple symptoms simultaneously, both in practice and in research, is an area in need of further investigation. This consortium, organized by the Department of Symptom Research, at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, provides a venue for scientific presentations and collaborative discussions on the development of coherent measurement methods that will allow comparison of symptom burden across clinical trials, epidemiologic studies, and clinical practice. The specific aims of this conference are: To specifically delineate the concept of symptom burden; To provide a collaborative discussion among pharmaceutical industry scientists, federal policy makers, and academic research investigators about improving the scientific infrastructure to manage the complex problems caused by multiple symptoms.; To stimulate collaborative and interdisciplinary research to better understand the etiologic mechanism of multiple symptoms.; To examine and standardize the measurement methods for specific symptoms within the context of a high burden of illness.; To compose a state of the science document, summarizing the recommendations for standardizing measurement methods of specific symptoms within the context of a high burden of illness. The document will be a collaborative effort among consortium participants, and will be submitted to a leading scientific peer-reviewed journal.