Final Results of a Non-Interventional Study Evaluating the Quality of Life in Second-line Treatment of Metastatic Renal Cell Carcinoma With Everolimus: The EVERPRO Study

Abstract

Background: This study assessed the quality of life (QoL) and the implication of time effort of everolimus treatment in patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC).

Methods: Adult patients with mRCC were eligible for everolimus treatment after first-line vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR) tyrosine kinase inhibitors or bevacizumab therapy. The primary end-point, QoL, was assessed by means of the NCCN-FACT FKSI-19 questionnaire.

Results: In total, 202 patients (24% of female patients; median age, 71 years) were evaluable for QoL analyses. The median treatment duration was 4.4 months (95% CI, 3.8-5.3) and the median time to progression was 6 months (95% CI, 5.4-7.5). The median FKSI-19 total score remained stable during treatment (52.0 at therapy start, 55.0 at observation end). The median time effort spent on total therapy was 20 hours per patient. Most of the patients stated to have "no limitations," "a little" or "moderate" limitations in their daily, social, and professional lives. Two months after the start of treatment, 65 patients reported none or a little time burden due to therapy.

Conclusions: QoL was maintained during the everolimus therapy and limitations as well as time effort were acceptable for most of the patients. The study supports previous findings on switching mode of action after anti-VEGFR-targeted therapy to a mammalian target of rapamycin inhibitor.

Keywords: Everolimus; QoL; Renal cell carcinoma; Targeted therapy.