ESMO Guidance for Reporting Oncology real-World Evidence (ESMO-GROW)

ESMO Guidance for Reporting Oncology real-World Evidence (ESMO-GROW) was developed by a multidisciplinary group of experts to provide guidance for the reporting of all types of real-world evidence (RWE) observational or non-interventional studies.   

It can be used for both descriptive (e.g. epidemiological, public health, treatment patterns) and analytical (e.g. explanatory, prognostic and/or predictive) research. It also covers key aspects of novel designs, such as “target trial emulation” or “quasi-experimental” oncology studies, and for clinical trials using real-world data, such as “pragmatic clinical trials” or trials with “synthetic control arm”. 

ESMO-GROW addresses various nuances of modern research in oncology: novel anti-cancer treatments, trends for molecular-based epidemiology, oncology-specific variables or outcomes, and the increased use of patient-reported outcomes, digital health, artificial intelligence, machine learning and deep learning RWE research. 

It includes a detailed list of recommendations for different RWE research scenarios, providing clear guidance to facilitate harmonised interpretation by authors, editors, reviewers, and readers.  

The ESMO-GROW project includes various materials for users engaged in writing, evaluating, or publishing RWE oncology studies, including: 

• Online tool and informative score:  An interactive, user-friendly and innovative checklist tool including all recommendations of ESMO-GROW manuscript, which provides a final assessment and an informative score of the reporting of a RWE study in Oncology. To be used by authors and reviewers.  

• Checklist: A checklist with all recommendations from ESMO-GROW for users to assess the quality of the report of a RWE study in Oncology.

• Flowchart: An editable document to be used by authors for reporting case selection for analysis in a RWE study.