{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,9,12]],"date-time":"2026-09-12T19:06:12Z","timestamp":1789239972156,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"6","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,6]],"date-time":"2025-06-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1749168000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Foundation Swiss Tumor Institute Z\u00fcrich","award":["REV2025"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["REV2025"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Current Oncology"],"abstract":"<jats:p>In patients undergoing systemic treatment for cancer, symptom tracking via electronic patient-reported outcomes (ePROs) has been used to optimize communication and monitoring, and facilitate the early detection of adverse effects and to compare the side effects of similar drugs. We aimed to examine whether the patterns in electronic patient-reported outcomes, without any additional clinician data input, are predictive of the underlying cancer type and reflect tumor- and treatment-associated symptom clusters (SCs). The data were derived from a total of 226 patients who self-reported on the presence and severity (according to the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (CTCAEs)) of more than 90 available symptoms via the mediduxTM app (versions 2.0 and 3.2, developed by mobile Health AG based in Zurich, Switzerland). Among these, 172 had breast cancer as the primary tumor, 19 had lung, 16 had gut, 12 had blood\u2013lymph, and 7 had prostate cancer. For this secondary analysis, a subgroup of 25 patients with breast cancer were randomly selected to reduce the risk of overfitting. The symptoms were aggregated by counting the days on which a particular symptom was reported, resulting in a symptom vector for each patient. A logistic regression model was trained to predict the type of the respective tumor from the symptom vectors, and the symptoms with coefficients above (0.1) were graphically displayed. The machine learning model was not able to recognize any of the patients with prostate and blood\u2013lymph cancer, likely as these cancer types were barely represented in the dataset. The Area Under the Curve (AUC) values for the three remaining cancer types were breast cancer: 0.74 (95% CI [0.624, 0.848]); gut cancer: 0.78 (95% CI [0.659, 0.893]); and lung cancer: 0.63 (95% CI [0.495, 0.771]). Despite the small datasets, for the breast and gut cancers, the respective models demonstrated a fair predictive performance (AUC &gt; 0.7). The generalization of the findings are limited especially due to the heterogeneity of the dataset. This line of research could be especially interesting to monitor individual treatment trajectories. Deviations in the electronic patient-reported symptoms from the treatment-associated symptom patterns could dynamically indicate treatment non-adherence or lower treatment efficacy, without clinician input or additional costs. Similar analyses on larger patient cohorts are needed to validate these preliminary findings and to identify specific and robust treatment profiles.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/curroncol32060334","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,6]],"date-time":"2025-06-06T09:43:14Z","timestamp":1749202994000},"page":"334","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Using Machine Learning Approaches on Dynamic Patient-Reported Outcomes to Cluster Cancer Treatment-Related Symptoms"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"32","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-7060-3333","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nora","family":"Asper","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Dental Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8608-9039","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hans Friedrich","family":"Witschel","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business, FHNW, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, 4600 Olten, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Louise","family":"von Stockar","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mobile Health AG, 8008 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Emanuele","family":"Laurenzi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Business, FHNW, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, 4600 Olten, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0221-3272","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hans Christian","family":"Kolberg","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Marienhospital Bottrop GmbH, 46236 Bottrop, Germany"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0004-1003-1078","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marcus","family":"Vetter","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Cantonal Hospital Baselland, 4410 Liestal, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-6063-7447","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sven","family":"Roth","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Dental Medicine and Faculty of Medicine, University of Zurich, 8032 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0757-4408","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Gerd","family":"Kullak-Ublick","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Andreas","family":"Trojan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Hospital Zurich, University of Zurich, 8006 Zurich, Switzerland"},{"name":"BreastCenter Z\u00fcrichsee, 8810 Horgen, Switzerland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"229","DOI":"10.3322\/caac.21834","article-title":"Global Cancer Statistics 2022: GLOBOCAN Estimates of Incidence and Mortality Worldwide for 36 Cancers in 185 Countries","volume":"74","author":"Bray","year":"2024","journal-title":"CA A Cancer J. 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