Quality of reporting and assessment of patient-reported health-related quality of life in patients with brain metastases: a systematic review.

Brain metastases (BMs) have become increasingly prevalent and present unique considerations for patients, including neurocognitive sequelae and advanced disease burden. Therefore, assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) via patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) is an important element of managing these patients. A systematic review of the literature was conducted with the aims of (1) assessing how PROMS used in BM patients were validated, (2) assessing PROM content, and (3) evaluating quality of PROM-results reporting. PROM validation and quality of reporting were assessed using the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) grading criteria and International Society of Quality of Life (ISOQOL)-recommended PROM-reporting standards, respectively. Forty-seven studies reporting on 5178 patients with a range of primacy cancer types were included. Eight different PROMs were applied, ranging from general to brain-specific questionnaires. Weaknesses in the validation of these PROMs were assessed by the COSMIN criteria. Many of these PROMs were not developed for BM patients and contained little information on cognitive symptoms. The overall quality of PROM reporting was insufficient based on the ISOQOL scale. Given the unique clinical considerations in BM patients, our results indicate the need for a standardized, validated questionnaire to assess HRQoL in this population. Additionally, there is room for quality improvement with regard to reporting of PROM-related results.