KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The study aimed to investigate QoL in pts with FL by LOT using the real-world data.
- Researchers observed worse QoL at later LOTs in FL, European pts fared worse than US pts.
Follicular lymphoma (FL) is a low-grade non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) subtype that is characterized by remissions/relapse occurrences in a long natural course.
Patrick Connor Johnson and the team aimed to evaluate the real-world quality of life (QoL) in patients (pts) with follicular lymphoma (FL) by line of therapy (LOT) and across different countries in Europe and the United States (US).
Researchers retrieved data from the Adelphi FL Disease Specific Programme™ and conducted a cross-sectional survey of physicians and their pts in Europe [France, Germany, Italy, Spain, etc.], and the US from June 2021 to January 2022.
Patient-derived demographics and patient-reported outcomes via the european organisation for research and treatment of cancer QoL questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30). The QoL vs NHL, across LOT [first line (1L), second line (2L), third line or later (3L+)] and country were assessed by using bivariate analysis.
About 401 pts were enrolled to the study with a mean age of 66.0 years, with 58.1% being male and 41.9%/22.9% classified as ann arbor stage III/IV. Results indicated that pts with FL had significantly worse mean EORTC global health status (GHS)/QoL, nausea/vomiting, pain, dyspnea, appetite loss, and diarrhea scores compared to the NHL reference values (P< 0.05).
The mean (SD) GHS/QoL scores deteriorated from 56.5 (22.21) in 1L therapy to 50.4 (20.11) in or later 3L+ therapies. Additionally, physical and role functioning, as well as fatigue, pain, dyspnea, and diarrhea scores, worsened significantly with later LOT (P< 0.05). Across all functional domains, those pts from Europe had significantly lower mean scores (P< 0.05) compared to US pts, and almost all symptom scores, except for diarrhea, were significantly higher (P< 0.05).
The study concluded that pts with FL at later LOTs had demonstrated statistically significant worse scores in most of the QoL aspects vs earlier LOTs. Also, the pts from Europe had lower functioning and higher symptom burden vs pts in US. The real-world findings highlight the need for novel FL therapies that alleviate patient burden, positively impacting QoL.
The study was funded by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc., Tarrytown, NY, USA.
Source: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38976122/
Johnson PC, Bailey A, Ma Q, et al. (2024). “Quality of Life Evaluation in Patients with Follicular Cell Lymphoma: A Real-World Study in Europe and the United States.” Adv Ther. 2024 Aug;41(8):3342-3361. doi: 10.1007/s12325-024-02882-1. Epub 2024 Jul 8. PMID: 38976122; PMCID: PMC11263223.
