Dr Soror on Patient-Reported Outcomes in Hospitalized Patients With Cancer

“Hospitalized patients with cancer reported higher physical and psychological symptoms while they were in the hospital. Interestingly, although [male] patients had lower [grade] physical symptoms, female patients had a higher score but with higher reframing and distraction coping mechanisms. [Additionally], a higher comorbidity index was associated other coping mechanisms, including higher [rates of] substance abuse or behavioral disengagement.”

Noha Soror, MD, a hematology/oncology fellow at the University of Oklahoma College of Medicine, discussed findings from an analysis of patient-reported outcomes (PROs) from hospitalized patients with cancer presented at the OncLive Fellows Forum on Thoracic Oncology, which took place during the 2025 ASCO Annual Meeting.

Soror explained that she and her colleagues conducted their study because most published data examining PROs was gathered in the outpatient setting. The prospective study was conducted at the University of Oklahoma Health Science Center and included data from August 2023 to September 2024, she continued. Patients were enrolled within 2 to 5 days of hospital admission; approximately 2100 patients were screened, and the final study population included 300 participants, Soror said.

Lung cancer was the fifth most common cancer type, Soror noted. Findings from the study showed that hospitalized patients with cancer reported worse physical and phycological symptoms, she said. Although male patients experienced lower-grade physical symptom scores, female patients had higher scores, Soror continued. However, female patients displayed higher reframing and distraction coping mechanisms, she added.

A higher comorbidity index was associated with other coping mechanisms, including higher rates of substance abuse or behavioral disengagement, Soror said. Patients with hematologic malignancies displayed higher rates of self-distraction and there was no difference in PROs between patients with curable vs noncurable disease, she said.

These findings highlight that patients with cancer have a high physical and psychological symptom burden during hospitalization, Soror said. Hopefully, these data will be used to apply targeted interventions for these patients in the future, she concluded.