The Utility of the New Instrument for Comprehensive Symptom Profile Assessment In Patients with Multiple Myeloma

Abstract 4757

Increased importance should be placed on the comprehensive symptom assessment in patients with multiple myeloma to accurately document the broad range of physical and psychological disease manifestations given from the patient perspective. The new developed symptom assessment tool - Comprehensive Symptom Profile in Multiple Myeloma Patients (CSP-MM) aims to provide an in-depth view of patient's problems. It is currently undergoing content validation through a structured, iterative process that conforms to the FDA industry guidance on the use of patient-reported outcome measures. We aimed to evaluate the utility of the new instrument providing evidence of its content validity.

Pilot sample of twenty two patients with different stages of multiple myeloma were included in this qualitative research study. Patients underwent either conventional chemotherapy or autologous stem cell transplantation. Mean age was 58 years old; male/female distribution –11/11. The CSP-MM is a self-reported tool which consists of 51numeric rating scales (where “0” - no symptom, “10” - most expressed symptom). Evidence of adequate tool content was collected from multiple sources: literature review, pilot CSP-MM completion, cognitive interviews with patients and clinicians, expert evaluation, and data quality control. Patients filled out the CSP-MM before and at different time-points of treatment.

The utility of the CSP-MM was demonstrated. After the completion of the pilot, patients were asked about their overall assessment of the questionnaire. Open-ended patient interviews provided a full understanding of the patient's perspective and showed that saturation of the items has been reached. The patients acknowledged the comprehensiveness of the tool. All of the items were easy for the patients to read and understand. Total number of completed surveys was 79 with only 1.6% missing items throughout all forms. Completion of the CSP-MM in paper and pencil format took 7–9 min. The data produced by the tool were clear for interpretation by physicians. According to the clinicians’ interviews, changes in symptom severity captured by the tool at different time-points of treatment gave the physicians information about patient experience and were used by them in day-to-day decision making.

Thus, the CSP-MM is an appropriate and practical tool to assess the symptom severity in myeloma patients. The utility of the questionnaire was shown. Pending further validation, the CSP-MM can be used to assess symptoms in MM patients and the patient benefit from the treatment.