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Your Symptoms Matter

Your Symptoms Matter helps your healthcare team monitor and manage your symptoms more effectively.

These questionnaires are recommended by Ontario Health – Cancer Care Ontario. All patients living with cancer across the province are invited to answer these symptom-screening questions.

When to complete Your Symptoms Matters:

Complete this short questionnaire about common cancer-related symptoms before your in-person, phone or video appointment with your doctor at the Odette Cancer Centre. You do not need to complete the questionnaire before an imaging appointment (CT, MRI, x-ray) or if you are not being seen by a doctor at Odette.

Your responses will help your healthcare team understand how you are feeling today and track any changes over time. This will help to better manage your symptoms.

How to complete Your Symptoms Matter:

  • Online at isaac.ontariohealth.ca using your smart phone or home computer. This is a secure website that you can use to complete your symptom screen whether your appointment is in person at the Odette Cancer Centre or virtual/over the phone. You will also find a link on your MyChart under 'My Appointments'.

o Enter your Ontario Health Card (OHIP) number and click ‘Start’.

o Answer the questions and click ‘continue’ in the lower-right corner.

  • In person at the Odette Cancer Centre, using a computer kiosk or paper.

​When you complete Your Symptoms Matter from home, your results are sent to your electronic health record so we can see them. A registered nurse might phone you to better understand your results and discuss ways to help you manage your symptoms.

There are two types of Your Symptoms Matter questionnaires:

  1. ​Your Symptoms Matter – General Symptoms
    Most patients will be offered this questionnaire. It asks about common symptoms: pain, tiredness, nausea, depression, anxiety, drowsiness, appetite, wellbeing, sleeping problems, diarrhea, constipation and shortness of breath. There is also one extra question about your activity level in the last month. You will be asked to rate how severe each symptom is at the time of the survey on a scale from 0 to 10. Zero (0) means you don’t have this symptom and 10 means that it is the worst possible severity.
  1. Your Symptoms Matter – Prostate Cancer
    This questionnaire is for patients with prostate cancer. It has 17 questions that help us to identify and understand your health issues. There is also one extra question about your activity level in the last month.

Based on your results, a member of your team might talk to you about your scores. This is common when your scores are high. If your scores are low, the team might not mention it directly; please know they are still looking for changes to your results over time to help them understand how you are doing. If your care team doesn’t ask about your results and you want to discuss them, please ask, 'Can we talk about my symptom results today?' during your appointment.

You can call the Odette Cancer Centre anytime if you have any symptoms you are worried about. Phone 416-480-5000 and ask to speak to a registered nurse.