Project Patient Voice

The table at the bottom of this webpage shows a row for each drug profile. Each trial name within the table can be clicked on to view a table of the patient-reported symptoms collected during the trial. Some symptoms were reported based on symptom severity, and others frequency, amount, or occurrence. Each symptom in the table can be clicked on to open a new webpage showing bar and pie charts.

The bar charts show the percent of patients reporting how often they had the symptom over six months. In many trials, less than half of the trial participants are still taking the drug at six months. The main reasons that trial participants stop taking the drug include progressive (worsening) disease, death, and drug toxicity. As these charts capture only the first six months on treatment, they do not reflect patient reports of symptoms that appear after the first 6 months of treatment and may not show the pattern of worsening/improving that may occur with certain symptoms as treatment continues (e.g., nausea, neuropathy). The bar charts include the number of trial participants who were still taking the drug at each week. Each bar represents a week and the colors correspond to the responses trial participants gave. On the outside of the bar graph under “N” are the number of participants who gave a response that week. The percentage in the green space is the group of patients who did not have the symptom that week.

The pie charts show the worst response a participant gave during the first 24 weeks of taking the drug. For example, at week 4, a participant might have reported “frequent” nausea, but after week 4 their nausea was occurring “occasionally” (representing an improvement). In the pie chart, this participant would be counted in the area of the pie chart representing “frequently”, because that was their worst nausea score.

For more information on how to read the bar and pie charts in Project Patient Voice, click here.