Detecting lung cancer relapse using self-evaluation forms weekly filled at home: the sentinel follow-up

We aimed to assess if patients' ratings of symptoms can be used to provide an early indication of disease recurrence or progression in lung cancer. We proposed a simple self-evaluation form made of six clinical parameters weekly scored by patients at home as a follow-up--here named sentinel--to improve relapse detection. Its performances were compared to those of a routine imaging follow-up.

Patients with lung cancer were prospectively recruited to weekly fill a form at home for self-assessing weight, fatigue, pain, appetite, cough, and breathlessness during at least 4 months. Each patient reported weight and assessed the severity of each symptom by grading it from 0 (no symptom) to 3 (major symptom). A score was retrospectively designed for discriminating patients with relapse from those without. Accuracy of relapse detection was then compared to values of the routine planned imaging.

Forty-three patients were included in our center and recruited for 16 weeks or more follow-up during which at least one tumor imaging assessment was performed (CT scan or PET-CT). Forty-one completed the form weekly. Sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values of sentinel were high (86, 93, 86 % and 93 vs 79, 96, 92, and 90 % for routine imaging--p = ns) and well correlated with relapse (pχ2 > 0.001). Moreover, relapses were detectable with sentinel on average 6 weeks earlier than the planned imaging.

This study suggests that a personalized cancer follow-up based on a weekly self-evaluation of six symptoms is feasible and may be accurate for earlier detection of lung cancer relapse, allowing integration in electronic devices for real-time patient outcome follow-up.