Oncology ePRO has to work for people on treatment: short, frequent, phone-friendly questionnaires that sit beside the site's visit data. Here is how to choose, a category-level comparison and where Capture does and does not fit.
Free sandbox · No credit card · 21 CFR Part 11 aligned
Weekly symptom diary · participant phone
Demo study · Cycle 2, Day 8
In the last 7 days
Nausea, at its worst
Fatigue interfered with daily activities
Number of loose stools on the worst day
The short answer
The buying problem
General ePRO buyers can focus on whether a questionnaire can be completed on a device. Oncology adds pressure. Participants may be unwell, in treatment cycles, travelling to infusion visits and answering the same items week after week. If completion drops, the missing data are rarely random: the people who feel worst often answer least. A good platform makes the questionnaire short, schedules it relative to treatment, and tells the study team early when responses stop.
The instruments themselves also matter. Oncology studies often include symptomatic adverse event items such as PRO-CTCAE, health-related quality-of-life questionnaires such as the EORTC QLQ-C30, and site-rated measures such as ECOG performance status. Some are free to use under terms, some are licensed, and the licence stays with your study documents. See PRO-CTCAE and oncology side-effect diary ePRO for how the pieces fit.
Finally, ePRO is not the safety record. A patient-reported symptom does not replace the investigator's adverse event assessment; the two sit side by side, and the site still grades and reports events. For the wider oncology picture, read EDC for oncology clinical trials.
Selection criteria
Run the same test through each vendor on your shortlist.
Check for an app install requirement. See BYOD ePRO without an app download.
Anchor diaries to visits and windows rather than calendar dates.
Email and SMS cadence, and what the team sees when responses stop. See ePRO compliance reminders.
Where licence number, holder and expiry are recorded, and what happens at expiry. Capture records these for patient questionnaires only and does not verify them.
One participant record and one audit trail avoid reconciliation between systems.
Patient, caregiver or clinician; site-rated scales belong in the eCRF.
Offline mode, languages and device coverage: ask directly.
Per-study, per-participant or per-module charges, in writing. See ePRO cost per patient.
Comparison
Neutral, category-level descriptions. Details change, so confirm everything with each vendor and in a hands-on trial.
| Option | Category | Often evaluated for | Verify for oncology ePRO |
|---|---|---|---|
| Capture | Self-serve, all-in-one clinical trial platform | Phase 1 to 3 oncology studies wanting diaries, eCRFs, eConsent and randomization together | Phone questionnaires without an app; reminders; no offline mode; licence tracking only for patient questionnaires |
| Castor | Commercial EDC and decentralised platform | Mid-market sponsors and CROs | ePRO scope, schedule options, commercial model. See Capture vs Castor |
| REDCap | Institution-hosted research data capture | Academic studies with institutional support | How surveys, scheduling and reminders are set up locally. See Capture vs REDCap |
| Medrio | Commercial EDC for sponsors and CROs | Early-phase and small-to-mid-size trials | ePRO included or add-on. See Capture vs Medrio |
| Viedoc | Commercial clinical trial platform | Studies running across many countries | ePRO scope and language coverage. See Capture vs Viedoc |
| OpenClinica | EDC with an open-source heritage | Teams wanting configurability and hosting choice | How participant questionnaires are delivered. See Capture vs OpenClinica |
| Specialist eCOA providers | Dedicated eCOA vendors | Pivotal programmes with provisioned devices and global scale | Integration with your EDC, timelines and cost |
No pricing or feature claims are made about any vendor other than Capture. This is not a ranking.
Draft the questionnaire, set the schedule, preview it on a phone and test reminders. No credit card.
Where Capture fits
Capture schedules patient questionnaires relative to visits, sends reminders by email or SMS, and keeps responses in the same study as eCRFs. That lets a site reviewer see a patient's weekly symptom diary next to the cycle's lab and adverse event forms, under one audit trail.
| Assessment | C1D1 | C1D8 | C1D15 | C2D1 | C2D8 | C3D1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vital signs (site) | ||||||
| Laboratory (site) | ||||||
| Adverse events (site) | ||||||
| Symptom diary (patient) | D | D | D | D | D | D |
| Quality of life questionnaire |
x = done at visit · D = diary on the patient's phone
Honest limits
Capture does not currently offer offline entry, and it does not supply licensed instruments, verify licences or show licensed wording on your behalf; the licence stays with your study documents. This page also makes no multilingual claim, so if participants need questionnaires in several languages, confirm that with us first. For a pivotal programme that requires provisioned devices and a dedicated eCOA vendor integrated with a sponsor's EDC, a specialist provider may be the better choice.
Where Capture fits well is the large middle: investigator-led and early-phase oncology studies that want diaries, site forms, consent and randomization in one self-serve platform. It is suitable for Phase 1, 2 and 3. For the general ePRO question see best ePRO software and ePRO software for clinical trials.
How to run the evaluation
A weekly symptom diary plus one quality-of-life questionnaire, with licences confirmed for each.
Time it and note any app install, login or password step.
Skip a response and see what the participant and the study team each receive.
Find the diary beside the site visit data and check the audit trail.
Ask for the commercial model in writing.
It depends on recall period, schedule, patient burden, instrument licensing and where ePRO data need to sit. Test each option with the same diary on a phone.
You can set up a PRO-CTCAE-style form as an ePRO. The licence and terms stay with your study documents; Capture does not supply licensed wording.
No. Questionnaires open on the patient's own phone through a link, with no app to install.
No. Patient-reported symptoms sit beside the investigator's adverse event forms; the site still grades and reports events.
No. Study teams record licence number, holder and expiry for patient questionnaires; Capture does not verify them with rights holders.
No. Offline entry is not available today.
No. It is suitable for Phase 1, 2 and 3 studies.
Open the free sandbox, with every feature, no credit card and no time limit. You pay only when you go live.
Free sandbox, every feature. No credit card, pay only when you go live.