Health-related quality of life and estimation of the minimally important difference in the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Endocrine Symptom score in postmenopausal ER+/HER2- metastatic breast cancer with low sensitivity to endocrine therapy.

Abstract

BACKGROUND:

The HORSE-BC study previously demonstrated that second-line endocrine therapy (ET) for patients with acquired endocrine-resistant metastatic breast cancer (MBC) still provided a clinically meaningful benefit. Herein, we investigated the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in the HORSE-BC study.

METHODS:

Patients with acquired endocrine-resistant MBC who were scheduled for second-line ET were recruited. The HRQOL was assessed at baseline, and 1 and 3 months after second-line ET initiation. To investigate the minimally important difference (MID) in the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Endocrine Symptoms (FACT-ES), we evaluated the means and standard deviations for the distribution-based method, and differences in the change in HRQOL for the anchor-based method. We also investigated the association between FACT-ES total scores and clinical benefit.

RESULTS:

Overall, 56 patients were enrolled. Of these, 47 were analyzed. When defined as 1/3 standard deviation estimates based on the distribution method, the calculated MID was 5.9. The MIDs of the FACT-ES total scores based on the anchor method were 7.7 for decline and 4.1 for improvement. The MID decline proportions were 6.1% and 14.7% lower in patients who experienced clinical benefits than in those who did not at 1 and 3 months, respectively. The ratios of MID improvement in patients who experienced clinical benefits were 18.3% and 3.2% higher, respectively; the mean change in the FACT-ES total score from baseline improved in patients who experienced clinical benefits.

CONCLUSIONS:

Maintaining the HRQOL as determined by FACT-ES may be associated with clinical benefits in patients with acquired endocrine-resistant MBC treated with ET.

• Authors: Yuichiro Kikawa, Yasuhiro Hagiwara, Tomomi Fujisawa, Kazuhiro Araki, Takayuki Iwamoto, Takafumi Sangai, Tadahiko Shien, Shintaro Takao, Reiki Nishimura, Masato Takahashi, Tatsuya Toyama, Tomohiko Aihara, Hirofumi Mukai, Naruto Taira
• Journal: PloS one (PLoS One) Vol. 17 Issue 11 Pg. e0278344 ( 2022) ISSN: 1932-6203 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 36445924 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright: © 2022 Kikawa et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Topics

• Humans
• Quality of Life
• Postmenopause
• Neoplasms
• Cognition