The combination of dabrafenib and trametinib provides better preservation of health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and pain improvements compared with dabrafenib monotherapy while also delaying disease progression, a recent study published in the European Journal of Cancer has shown.

For the study, researchers sought to analyze the impact of treatments on HRQoL from the COMBI-d study that evaluated the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib versus dabrafenib alone in patients with BRAF V600/K-mutant metastatic melanoma.

Results showed that global health dimension scores were significantly better at weeks 8, 16, and 24 for those receiving dabrafenib plus trametinib during treatment and at progression.


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Researchers also found that the majority of functional dimension scores trended in favor of the combination regimen.

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The study also showed that pain scores were significantly improved and clinically meaningful for patients receiving dabrafenib and trametinib for all follow-up assessments compared with those receiving dabrafenib alone.

However, for other symptom dimensions, scored trended in favor of the monotherapy.

Reference

  1. Schadendorf D, Amonkar MM, Stroyakovskiy D, et al. Health-related quality of life impact in ra randomised phase III study of the combination of dabrafenib and trametinib versus dabrafenib monotherapy in patients with BRAF V600 metastatic melanoma. Eur J Cancer. 2015. [Epub ahead of print]. doi: 10.1016/j.ejca.2015.03.004.