Health‐related quality‐of‐life assessment of patients with solid tumors on immuno‐oncology therapies

Abstract

Immuno‐oncology therapies have been approved for various solid tumors; however, the high cost of these treatments and their potential toxicities require a thorough assessment of their risks and benefits. Collection of data directly from patients through patient‐reported outcome instruments can improve the precision and reliability of adverse event detection, assess tolerability of adverse events, and provide an evaluation of health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) changes from immuno‐oncology therapies. There is robust development in HRQOL tools specifically for patients treated with immuno‐oncology agents. This review examines the history and basic concepts of HRQOL and patient‐reported outcome assessments commonly used in oncological trials, highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches when applied to immunotherapies, as well as some of the current efforts to develop tools for this field and opportunities for future research. Lay Summary Immuno‐oncology (IO) therapies are costly and carry potential toxicities known as immune‐related adverse events. Evaluation of health‐related quality of life (HRQOL) can impact the risk‐benefit assessment of IO therapies. Integration of HRQOL end points and patient‐reported outcome data for IO therapies are urgently needed. Ongoing robust development of patient‐reported outcome tools specific to IO therapies are currently underway and will permit the evaluation of HRQOL for IO agents. Improvement in precision and reliability of HRQOL evaluation will enhance the ultimate true value of these expensive and effective drugs.

Health-related quality of life in cancer immunotherapy: a systematic perspective, using causal loop diagrams

“…Despite the importance of HRQoL of patients following immunotherapy, it has only received some limited, recent research attention [ 21 , 22 ]. One noticeable gap is that less HRQoL-focused research has been performed regarding cancer immunotherapy purely due to the treatment’s relative novelty.…”

Investigating the Quality of Life for Cancer Patients and Estimating the Cost of Immunotherapy in Selected Cases

“…In In our study, we tried to evaluate the quality of life of cancer patients who underwent the method of ICI, as other researchers have done in the past [18][19][20][21]. Similar studies, also, have found a statistically significant association between socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and quality of life in cancer patients, such as marital status, age, and gender [22][23][24][25].…”

A Review of Patient-Reported Outcome Considerations in Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee Meetings (2016-2021)

“…As one ODAC member noted during the 2019 review of selinexor, such instruments are static and may be limited in their ability to capture important study-specific concepts (Table 3). Recent publications have observed this limitation, pointing out several legacy instruments that do not capture symptomatology unique to immune checkpoint inhibitors [35][36][37] and targeted therapies. 38 Furthermore, legacy measures may not have been validated in specific groups of patients.…”