NRG Working Group Spotlight: Head and Neck Patient Reported Outcomes and Cost Effectiveness Working Group (PROCE)

04/15/2026

By Samantha Tam, MD, MPH
Vice Chair, NRG Oncology PCOR Committee
NRG Oncology Head & Neck Cancer Committee (member)
Vice Chair, NRG H&N PROCE Working Group
Henry Ford Cancer

The treatment of head and neck cancers carries a significant and well-recognized functional burden. Because of the anatomic complexity of the disease site, patients frequently experience long-term toxicities affecting swallowing, speech, and overall quality of life that can persist well into survivorship. Understanding these short- and long-term treatment effects from the patient’s perspective is essential to delivering optimal oncologic care, and is increasingly important in rigorous trial design.

The NRG Oncology Head and Neck Patient Reported Outcomes and Cost Effectiveness (PROCE) Working Group was established with the goal of developing meaningful patient-centric outcomes. This group aims to provide disease specific input in early trial development to help clinical trialists develop the quality of life components of their protocols through diverse feedback from a wide range of clinicians and experienced trialists. This early involvement ensures meaningful development of patient reported outcomes to ensure capture of patient’s experience after treatment.

The PROCE Working Group has been instrumental in the PROMs development of the PRO component of NRG HN014 which proposes a novel instrument to measure quality of life in patients with advanced cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma. Currently, it is working on refining the PROMs for NRG-HN2436, a Phase III trial investigating de-escalation of radiation therapy for patients with oropharyngeal carcinoma. Especially in these patients who have good prognosis after treatment, understanding the patient reported toxicity of treatment is an essential component to measure the impact of treatment de-escalation.

Beyond protocol development, the PROCE Working Group is also dedicated to ensuring quality and completeness of PROMs collection among the head and neck cancer population. Patients with head and neck cancer suffer from unique barriers to communication during and after treatment that can affect compliance. This group actively reviews disease site specific metrics to obtain feedback on opportunities to improve protocol compliance. In addition, a systematic review of past use of PROMs in NCTN trials is underway so that future trial development can be informed by the successes and barriers of past head and neck trials.

Lastly, the PROCE Working Group aims to develop new investigators, especially in head and neck cancer. The group has open participation, encouraging clinicians and trialists with all levels of experience to contribute and participate. For more information or to become involved with the PRO Head and Neck Working Group, please contact the NRG Head and Neck Committee leadership.