Impact of response to treatment in health-related quality of life patient-reported outcomes in elderly patients with relapsed multiple myeloma

Abstract

Multiple myeloma (MM) is a recurrent malignancy with a high impact on quality of life. Improved survival relies on the combination of drugs and extended duration of therapy, raising concerns on its toxicity burden in elderly patients. Health-related quality of life measurements attent to capture health aspects relevant to patients other than efficacy. This prospective study aimed to understand the relationship between MM-related symptomatology and other quality of life dimensions using the EORTC QLQ-MY20 questionnaire in individuals with relapsed or refractory MM. Irrespective of treatment modality, over 50% of patients who responded to treatment had significant omprovements of reported scores in all domains. Conversely, disease progression was associated with score deterioration not only in the MM-related symptoms domain but also in all other domains. HRQoL adds valuable information to the established efficacy endpoints but an adequate interpretation of HRQoL outcomes in randomized trials should require stratification according to response.

Keywords:

• Relapsed and refractory multiple myeloma
• health-related quality of life
• patient reported outcomes

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge Max, Aina and Mireia Franch for their help with data collection and Norvella Dunwoody, M.S. for providing medical writing support for the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

All the authors declare they have no conflict of interests to disclose in relation to the content of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The authors acknowledge Celgene/BMS for their financial support for the study.