Symptom Management

People living with cancer often struggle with the physical and emotional effects of their illness and treatment. They sometimes need help to manage their pain, nausea, anxiety and other symptoms during their cancer journey.

Cancer Care Ontario has developed a toolkit of symptom assessment and management tools for health care providers to help improve care at every step along the cancer care continuum.

• Symptom Management Guides to Practice that include a pocket guide and algorithm for ease of use for all health care providers. It is also available in a mobile web app.
• The Edmonton Symptom Assessment System (ESAS) is a self-assessment tool completed by patients when they visit their medical and radiation oncologist or come for treatment. It helps patients communicate with their health care provider about how they are managing nine common symptoms experienced by cancer patients: pain, tiredness, nausea, depression, anxiety, drowsiness, appetite, well-being and shortness of breath.
• The Patient Reported Functional Status (PRFS) tool is a tool completed by patients in cancer treatment that assesses their functional status, or activity levels.