Nowadays, cancer patients have a longer life expectancy and can suffer from unfavorable outcomes caused by cancer or its treatment. This may result in a decline in their Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). An example of unfavorable side effects are neurologic symptoms, which can cause a decline in the neurologic functioning of patients. Therefore, maintaining a good quality of life as long as possible in cancer survivors becomes important.
HRQoL can be measured with Patient Reported Outcome Measurements (PROMs). PROMs are validated questionnaires which represent a patient’s assessment of symptoms, physical function, and daily functioning without interference from clinicians or caregivers. Incorporating the patient perspective into health care systems by implementing PROMs offers considerable potential to enhance patient outcomes and quality of care, by e.g., detecting physical or psychosocial problems that otherwise might be overlooked.
My research focuses on PROMs in regular clinical cancer care, in particular among breast cancer patients. Furthermore, I investigate cognitive measures to assess neurocognitive functioning in cancer patients. My projects are focused on HRQoL as well as neurocognitive functioning of patients and the link between these two areas.