Participants on cancer treatment feel side effects between visits, and recall at the next appointment is poor. This generic diary lets them log common symptoms, how bad they were and what they did about them, on their own phone.
Free sandbox · No credit card · 21 CFR Part 11 aligned
Daily symptom diary · Cycle 2, Day 5
Subject 006-0011 · Demo study
Nausea today
Fatigue today
Diarrhoea (number of loose stools)
Highest temperature today
Did you contact the clinic?
At a glance
Why a diary
In most oncology trials toxicity is graded by clinicians at visits, often three weeks apart. A participant who vomited for two days in week one and felt fine by the visit will report "a bit queasy". Between cycles the worst days, their timing relative to the infusion, and what the participant did about them go unrecorded, even though they are what supportive-care trials, dose-modification rules and tolerability analyses depend on.
A phone diary gives each day its own timestamped record. It shows the nadir of symptoms by cycle day, how quickly they settle, and whether anti-emetics or other relief were used. It also gives clinicians something concrete to discuss at the visit. For a standardised, validated patient-reported toxicity measure, use the PRO-CTCAE; for quality of life, the EORTC QLQ-C30. This diary sits alongside them: a short daily log, not a replacement for either.
A list of ten symptoms is the limit for most people on a phone, every day. Choose symptoms that fit the regimen in your protocol (neuropathy for taxanes, hand-foot skin changes for some targeted agents, mouth sores for some chemotherapies) and let participants add one free-text symptom.
Use a four-step scale (none, mild, moderate, severe) with plain-language anchors, and tell participants it is their own rating. Do not call the options "grade 1 to 4": CTCAE grades are clinician assessments, and mixing them with self-ratings in the same dataset confuses analyses.
A diary entry does not reach a clinician instantly. Put fever thresholds, emergency numbers and what to do in the diary header and the consent form, and record any resulting event on the adverse event eCRF. If a severe answer should prompt follow-up by site staff, add a custom-value edit check so it raises a query in their action list, and agree who reviews that list and how often.
Diaries this week
41 of 48
Overdue today
5
Severe answers to review
3
Template
| Field | Question type | Values | Why it is there |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cycle and day | Prefilled by schedule | e.g. Cycle 2, day 5 | Aligns symptoms with treatment timing |
| Nausea | Single choice | None, mild, moderate, severe | Most common chemotherapy symptom |
| Vomiting episodes | Numeric | Count in the last 24 hours | Counts are easier to tabulate than ratings |
| Loose stools | Numeric | Count in the last 24 hours | Diarrhoea burden |
| Constipation | Single choice | None to severe | Often follows anti-emetics |
| Fatigue | Slider | No fatigue to worst imaginable | Highest-burden symptom in many regimens |
| Pain | Linear scale | 0 to 10 | See the pain diary for a fuller log |
| Mouth sores, rash, numbness, appetite loss | Single choice each | None to severe | Regimen-specific |
| Highest temperature | Numeric | °C or °F, per protocol | Triggers the fever instructions |
| Interference with usual activities | Single choice | Not at all to very much | Impact beyond the symptom itself |
| Medication taken for symptoms | Multiple choice, text | Anti-emetic, loperamide, other | Supportive care use |
| Contacted the clinic | Single choice, text | Yes/no, reason | Records the action taken |
Adapt the list to your regimen. The wording is generic and written for this template; it does not reproduce PRO-CTCAE or any other licensed item set.
Run it as ePRO
Capture sends a secure link by email or SMS that opens in the phone browser, tied to the participant's record, with no app to install. The diary is scheduled as a daily task for the days the protocol needs, usually from day 1 of each cycle for 7 to 14 days.
When due
18:00
Your evening diary is open
Next day
18:00
Reminder: your diary is still open
Final notice
21:30
Last chance before the window closes
Quiet hours
22:00 to 08:00 in the participant's time zone
Stops
As soon as the task is completed
Build the diary from the field table, schedule it for days 1 to 14 and enter a week of demo symptoms in the free sandbox.
Before go-live
No more than ten symptoms plus one free-text symptom.
Fever threshold, phone number and what to do if the diary shows severe symptoms.
Who looks at severe answers, how often, and where follow-up is recorded.
Run both, or only one, and say why in the protocol; see the PRO-CTCAE template.
Tasks start at day 1 of each cycle with a completion window.
Participants know what is collected and that it is not monitored in real time.
No. It is a generic diary written for this template. The NCI's PRO-CTCAE has its own item library and terms of use, covered on a separate template page.
Not automatically. A custom-value edit check can raise a query in the site's action list, but a diary is not real-time monitoring. Give participants emergency instructions and agree a review routine.
Usually daily during the high-risk days after each treatment, for example days 1 to 14 of each cycle. Your protocol decides.
Yes. Add or remove single-choice questions and allow one free-text symptom. Keep the list short enough for daily use on a phone.
No. Derived values such as days with moderate or severe symptoms are calculated in analysis from the exported entries.
No. The diary opens in the phone browser from a secure link sent by email or SMS.
Yes, in the free sandbox with the rest of the template library. You pay only when a study goes live.
Keep exploring
PRO-CTCAE eCRF template
Validated patient-reported toxicity items.
EORTC QLQ-C30 eCRF template
Cancer quality of life.
EDC for oncology trials
Cycles, RECIST and CTCAE in one build.
Adverse event eCRF
Where clinician-assessed events are recorded.
Pain diary template
A fuller daily pain log.
Digital patient diary
Phone diaries without an app.
Build the symptom diary, schedule it by cycle day and test it on your phone. Free sandbox, no credit card.