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Letters to the Editor
has been validated for general cancer symptoms, we were not able to capture symptoms specifically related to MM or the impact of symptom burden on the disruption of functional and social activities of the patients or their caregivers.
In conclusion, transplant-ineligible patients with MM experience a substantial burden of symptoms in the first year following diagnosis. Future prospective studies both in clinical trials and in real-world patients are needed to further evaluate factors associated with high symptom burden longitudinally while simultaneously evaluating interventional supportive care strategies to alleviate this burden.
Hira S. Mian,1 Gregory R. Pond,2 Tanya M. Wildes,3 Branavan Sivapathasundaram,2 Jonathan Sussman1 and Hsien Seow1
1Juravinski Cancer Center, Department of Oncology, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada; 2McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and 3Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, USA
Correspondence: HIRA S. MIAN - hira.mian@medportal.ca doi:10.3324/haematol.2020.267757
Received: September 11, 2020.
Accepted: December 10, 2020.
Pre-published: December 23, 2020.
Disclosures: HSM has received consultancy fees and/or honoraria from Celgene, Takeda, Janssen, Amgen, and Sanofi; GRP has a close family member who is employed by Roche Canada, and who owns Roche Canada stock; he has also received consultancy fees from Astra- Zeneca and an honorarium from Takeda. TMW reports having received research funding from Janssen and is a consultant for Carevive Systems and Seattle Genetics. BS, JS and HS have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
Contributions: HSM, GRP, HS and JS were responsible for the conception and design of the study; BS and HSM collected the data; HSM, GRP, BS, TMW, HS, and JS analyzed and interpreted the data. All authors were involved in writing the manuscript and approved its final version.
Acknowledgments: the authors would like to thank Dr. Mark Levine for manuscript revision. Parts of the material are based on data and/or information compiled and provided by the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI). However, the analyses, conclusions, opin- ions and statements expressed in the material are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of CIHI. We acknowledge Cancer Care Ontario for access to the Ontario Cancer Registry (OCR), Cancer Activity Level Reporting (ALR), Symptom Management Database (ESAS) and The New Drug Funding Program (NDFP). We thank IQVIA Solutions Canada Inc. for the use of their Drug Information Database.
Funding: this investigation was supported by a grant from the Juravinski Cancer Centre Foundation and Myeloma Canada. The study was supported by ICES, which is funded by an annual grant from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC). The opinions, results and conclusions reported in this arti-
cle are those of the authors and are independent of the funding sources. No endorsement by ICES or the Ontario MOHLTC is intended or should be inferred.
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