Program in Child Health Evaluative Sciences, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Avenue, Toronto, ON, M5G 1X8, Canada.
BMC Cancer. 2012 Sep 26;12:430. doi: 10.1186/1471-2407-12-430.
The objective was to describe symptom assessment scales that have been used in children with cancer.
We conducted electronic searches of OVID Medline and EMBASE in order to identify all symptom assessment scales that have been used in pediatric cancer. Two reviewers abstracted information from each identified study. Data collected included study demographics and information related to the instrument and children enrolled. We also collected information about the purpose of instrument administration and whether treatment was altered as a result of this information.
Fourteen studies were identified which evaluated eight different symptom assessment scales. Eight studies used child self-report and all studies included children on active treatment for cancer although 4 studies also included children following completion of treatment. The most common purpose of instrument administration was to measure the prevalence of symptom burden (n = 8). None of the 14 studies used the scale to screen for symptoms and none changed patient management on the basis of identified symptoms.
We failed to identify any symptom assessment scales that were used as a symptom screening tool. There is a need to develop such a tool for use in children with cancer.
本研究旨在描述已应用于癌症儿童的症状评估量表。
我们对 OVID Medline 和 EMBASE 进行电子检索，以确定所有已应用于儿科癌症的症状评估量表。两名评审员从每个确定的研究中提取信息。收集的数据包括研究人群统计学信息以及与工具和纳入儿童相关的信息。我们还收集了有关工具管理目的的信息，以及是否因这些信息而改变治疗方法。
确定了 14 项研究，评估了 8 种不同的症状评估量表。8 项研究使用了儿童自我报告，所有研究均纳入了正在接受癌症积极治疗的儿童，尽管有 4 项研究还纳入了治疗完成后的儿童。仪器管理的最常见目的是测量症状负担的发生率（n = 8）。14 项研究中没有任何一项研究使用该量表进行症状筛查，也没有任何一项研究根据识别出的症状改变患者管理。
我们未能确定任何被用作症状筛查工具的症状评估量表。有必要为癌症儿童开发这样的工具。
