Methods to assess adverse health-related outcomes in cancer survivors.

Designing a study focused on adverse health-related outcomes among cancer survivors is complex. Similarly, reading and interpreting the findings of a survivorship-focused study requires an appreciation of the complexities of study design, potential biases, confounding factors, and other limitations. The topic areas are broad--study design, comparison populations, measures of risk, key health outcomes of interest, potential modifying factors to consider. With brevity, this article includes basic information to consider within these areas as well as examples and concepts intended to advance the science of survivorship research and encourage further reading and exploration. ©2011 AACR