How could patient reported outcomes improve patient management in chronic myeloid leukemia?

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Patients reported outcome (PRO) are still under-used in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), though data on the correlation between quality of life (QoL) and therapeutic efficacy are increasingly known. Chronic low-grade toxicities can reduce patient’s QoL and negatively impact on adherence.

Areas covered: This review will focus on the role of QoL questionnaires in patients with CML, receiving imatinib or newer TKIs (dasatinib, nilotinib, bosutinib, ponatinib). Physicians tend to underestimate the impact of TKI-related symptoms, in particular fatigue, that negatively affect QoL and can be a reason of poor adherence to therapy, with detrimental effect on long-term response. Few studies pointed out the role of PRO in CML, and there is paucity of questionnaires specifically designed for CML patients.

Expert commentary: We recommend a wider use of PRO to join the pursuit of a rapid and deep responses with an optimization of QoL.

KEYWORDS:

• Chronic myeloid leukemia
• quality of life
• patient reported outcome
• tyrosine kinase inhibitors
• prognosis

Declaration of interest

M Tiribelli has received honoraria and is a consultant for Novartis Pharmaceuticals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, ARIAD Pharmaceuticals and Pfizer. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Additional information

Funding

This paper was not funded.