ArticleBMJ open2026
Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) used in ambulatory palliative care for adult patients with cancer in low-income and middle-income countries: a systematic review protocol.
Article in BMJ open, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionThe global burden of cancer is increasingly concentrated in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs), where health systems face significant challenges such as late-stage diagnosis, limited resources and restricted access to specialised care. Palliative care plays a vital role in improving symptom control and quality of life for patients with cancer, particularly as care delivery shifts toward ambulatory and community-based settings. In this context, patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) and patient-reported experience measures (PREMs) are crucial for capturing patients' perspectives on the quality of care. However, the use and characteristics of these instruments in ambulatory palliative care settings within LMICs remain poorly understood. This systematic review aims to identify and map PROMs and PREMs used among adult patients with cancer receiving ambulatory palliative care in LMICs, and to examine their content, psychometric properties and alignment with key domains of quality palliative care. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This systematic review protocol was developed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses Protocols (PRISMA) guidelines. The search will be conducted across seven databases from the database inception to December 2025. Two independent reviewers will screen titles, abstracts and full-text articles using Rayyan software to identify studies involving adults (≥18 years) with cancer in ambulatory palliative care settings. Data extraction will capture study characteristics, instrument content and psychometric properties. The final review will be reported in accordance with the PRISMA-COSMIN for Outcome Measurement Instruments. A narrative synthesis will be conducted, mapping the identified instruments against the eight domains of the National Consensus Project Clinical Practice Guidelines for Quality Palliative Care to identify measurement gaps and inform future instrument development. A meta-analysis will be conducted if sufficient homogeneity exists. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This review will include only published data; therefore, no approval is required. The findings of this review will be presented at conferences and published in an open-access peer-reviewed journal. PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER: CRD420251273579.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.