Clinical and Patient-Reported Outcomes Following Multidisciplinary Management of Cancer-Related Pain: Protocol for a Prospective Observational Pre-Post Study

Abstract

[Abstract] Background: Cancer-related pain remains highly prevalent and frequently undertreated despite advances in oncological therapies and analgesic strategies. Multidisciplinary approaches are recommended to optimize complex cancer pain management and integrate supportive care; however, robust real-world evidence evaluating their measurable clinical and patient-reported impact remains limited. Structured multidisciplinary cancer pain committees may be associated with changes in pain outcomes, quality of life, and patient experience, but prospective evaluations in routine clinical practice are scarce.

Objective: The primary objective of this study is to describe changes in pain intensity following multidisciplinary evaluation in patients with cancer-related pain. Secondary objectives include describing changes in quality of life, pain interference, opioid consumption, treatment-related adverse effects, and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) following multidisciplinary cancer pain committee assessment.

Methods: This is a prospective, single-center, longitudinal, observational pre-post study conducted in a tertiary university hospital. A total of 68 adult patients with cancer-related pain referred to a multidisciplinary cancer pain management committee will be consecutively included in the study. Clinical variables and patient-reported outcomes will be collected at baseline (T0, before committee evaluation) and at 60 days following multidisciplinary committee assessment (T1). The primary outcome measure will be the change in pain intensity measured using the visual analog scale. Secondary outcomes include pain interference assessed with the Brief Pain Inventory-Short Form; health-related quality of life measured with the EQ-5D; and opioid consumption, treatment-related adverse effects, and PREMs, including patient satisfaction, assessed using the Likert scale. Pre-post comparisons will be performed using paired statistical tests (2-tailed paired t test or Wilcoxon signed rank test, depending on data distribution). Statistical significance will be set at P<.05.

Results: Participant recruitment began in July 2026. At the time of submission of this revised manuscript, 3 participants had been enrolled. Recruitment and follow-up are ongoing. Data collection is expected to continue through late 2027, and the primary study results are expected to be available in early 2028, following completion of data collection and statistical analysis.

Conclusions: This study will describe changes in clinical and patient-reported outcomes following multidisciplinary cancer pain committee assessment in routine clinical practice. Although causal inference is not possible because of the observational pre-post design, the findings may inform future optimization and evaluation of multidisciplinary cancer pain management pathways.