In addition to improving clinical efficacy outcomes, adding the vascular endothelial growth factor receptor 2 (VEGFR) inhibitor ramucirumab to docetaxel did not negatively impact quality of life, symptoms, or functioning in patients with advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).1
The randomized, double-blind, phase 3 REVEL trial demonstrated that docetaxel plus ramucirumab improved overall survival, progression-free survival, and objective response rate in patients with advanced/metastatic NSCLC with progression after platinum-based chemotherapy.
Investigators assessed quality of life using the Lung Cancer Symptom Scale (LCSS) and clinician-reported functional status. The LCSS included 6 symptom and 3 global items measured on a 0 to 100-mm scale, with higher scores signifying greater symptom burden.
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Results showed that the average LCSS total score increased from 27.3 mm at baseline to 32.0 at 30-day follow-up in the ramucirumab group, while the total score rose from 29.6 mm to 32.5 in the placebo group. Researchers found that the time to deterioration for all LCSS scores was similar between the 2 treatment arms.
The study also demonstrated that time to deterioration to ECOG performance status of 2 or higher was similar between patient arms (P = .743), as were LCSS total score (P = .932) and the Average Symptom Burden Index (P = .514).
“In addition to improvement of clinical efficacy outcomes demonstrated in REVEL, these results suggest that adding ramucirumab to docetaxel did not impair patient QoL [quality of life], symptoms, or functioning,” the authors concluded.
Reference
- Pérol M, Ciuleanu T-E, Arrieta O, et al. Quality of life results from the phase 3 REVEL randomized clinical trial of ramucirumab-plus-docetaxel versus placebo-plus-docetaxel in advanced/metastatic non-small cell lung cancer patients with progression after platinum-based chemotherapy [published online ahead of print January 19, 2016]. Lung Cancer. doi: 10.1016/j.lungcan.2016.01.007.
