Why focus on patient-reported outcome measures in older colorectal cancer patients?

Colorectal cancer is the most common cancer among older persons, with surgery the recommended treatment for many. With a growing emphasis on value-based care, there is an increasing desire to implement patient-reported outcome measures. Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are the tools and instruments used to collect patient-reported symptoms, functional status, and quality of life. Monitoring and addressing PROMs has been shown to improve patient-centered care in surgical oncology populations and survival in patients with advanced cancer. For older patients, functional status and quality of life are valuable outcomes of cancer treatment. However, experience with PROMs for older patients, and specifically older colorectal cancer patients, is limited and heterogenous. The International Consortium for Health Outcomes Measurement has recommended a set of outcome measures for colorectal cancer patients and a set of outcome measures for older patients, which have considerable overlap, providing a starting point for future investigations of PROMs for older colorectal cancer patients. While many questions remain, it is imperative that PROMs for older colorectal cancer patients be considered for their potential to improve cancer outcomes in this population.