The association of chemotherapy versus hormonal therapy and health outcomes among patients with hormone receptor-positive, HER2−negative metastatic breast cancer: experience from the patient perspective

Abstract

This study aimed to characterize the impact of metastatic breast cancer (MBC) and cancer treatments on health-related quality of life, treatment satisfaction, and daily productivity from the patient perspective. This was a cross-sectional survey of patients with MBC (USA, n = 200; EU, n = 160). Post-menopausal women aged ≥50 years with hormone receptor positive (HR+), HER2−negative (HER2−) MBC, currently using hormonal therapy (HT) or using chemotherapy (CT) for ≤1 year were recruited. Fifty three percent (n = 191) reported CT and 47% (n = 169) reported HT use. Adjusting for covariates, HT users reported greater health-related quality of life (p < 0.05), greater satisfaction with treatment and better feelings about side-effects (p < 0.001). HT users reported less bother with treatment side-effects (0–5 scale, p < 0.001) and less activity impairment than CT users (p < 0.001). HT was associated with better patient-reported outcomes than CT in first-line MBC management. These findings should be taken into consideration while making treatment decisions for HR+/HER2− MBC.

Keywords::

• chemotherapy
• health-related quality of life
• hormonal therapy
• metastatic breast cancer
• oncology
• patient-reported outcomes

Financial & competing interest disclosure

S Gupta is an employee of Kantar Health who is a paid consultant to Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation in connection with conducting this study and the development of this manuscript. Zhang J is an employee of Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation, which sponsored this study. Guy Jerusalem holds a consultancy role with Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. All authors contributed to the study design, interpretation of results and review and approval of the final manuscript. The authors would like to acknowledge Martine C Maculaitis, who provided support with literature review and manuscript editing on behalf of Kantar Health, with funding from Novartis Pharmaceutical Corporation. 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.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Key issues

• Patient health-related quality of life and preference play a major role when making treatment decisions for patients with metastatic breast cancer (MBC).

• The present study sought to examine patient-reported outcomes in a real-world setting.

• Hormonal therapy is associated with better health-related quality of life, greater treatment satisfaction and less activity impairment compared with chemotherapy in first-line MBC in both USA and EU patients.

• Hormonal therapy users reported experiencing less treatment-related side effects, requiring less treatment-related appointments and the need for others to provide care compared with chemotherapy users.

• Findings should be taken into consideration while making treatment decisions for first-line hormone receptor-positive/human EGF receptor 2-negative-MBC.

Notes