Abstract P5-17-02: Quality of life in patients receiving first-line eribulin mesylate for HER2- locally recurrent or MBC
Authors: Schwartzberg Lee , McIntyre Kristi , O'Shaughnessy Joyce , Glück Stefan , Berrak Erhan , Song James , Cox David , Vahdat Linda 
Published: May 2015

Introduction: Eribulin mesylate is a nontaxane microtubule inhibitor approved to treat MBC in patients (pts) who previously received ≥2 chemotherapeutic regimens for MBC. A phase 2 study of first-line eribulin for HER2-negative (HER2-) MBC showed an overall response rate of 29%, median 6.8 m progression-free survival, and tolerability consistent with earlier studies. We present prespecified quality of life (QoL) results for this trial.

Methods: Pts (N=56) received eribulin mesylate 1.4 mg/m2 IV on days 1 and 8 of each 3-wk cycle (median: 7 cycles). QoL was assessed using the EORTC QoL assessment (QLQ-C30) and a breast-cancer specific questionnaire (QLQ-BR23) pretreatment (baseline) and on day 1 of every other cycle during treatment. Percentage of pts with at least ±10-point change from baseline was summarized descriptively. Linear mixed-effects models were used to evaluate changes over time and compare responders vs nonresponders controlling for baseline score and time effect. Time-to-event analysis was performed on time to deterioration, defined as time from 1st dose to 1st occurrence of worsening in QoL score that reached minimally clinically important difference (MID; eg, 10 points in global health status in QLQ-C30) from baseline without further improvement of at least MID.

Results: For QLQ-C30 at cycle 6 (n=29), more pts had at least a 10-point improvement from baseline in role, emotional, and social functioning; fatigue, nausea/vomiting, pain, dyspnea, and insomnia item scores, than had worsening. More pts had worsening in global health status/QoL, cognitive functioning, and diarrhea (Table).

 Category, n (%) ImprovedStableWorsenedGlobal health status/QoL2 (7)16 (55)11 (38)Physical functioning9 (31)13 (45)7 (24)Role functioning14 (48)10 (35)5 (17)Emotional functioning9 (31)14 (48)6 (21)Cognitive functioning2 (7)13 (45)14 (48)Social functioning10 (35)13 (45)6 (21)Fatigue16 (55)5 (17)8 (28)Nausea and vomiting8 (28)16 (55)5 (17)Pain15 (52)8 (28)6 (21)Dyspnea9 (31)18 (62)2 (7)Insomnia12 (41)15 (52)2 (7)Appetite loss7 (24)16 (55)6 (21)Constipation5 (17)18 (62)6 (21)Diarrhea2 (7)21 (72)6 (21)

Median time to deterioration in global health status/QoL was 5.06 m (responders, 8.54 m; nonresponders, 3.71 m; hazard ratio=0.60, P=0.22). In linear mixed models, responders (n=16) performed better than nonresponders (n=40) in role functioning (P=0.011), emotional functioning (P=0.031), fatigue (P=0.007), pain (P=0.047), insomnia (P=0.018), and appetite loss (P=0.032). Mean symptom scores were significantly correlated with corresponding adverse event rates for nausea and vomiting, dyspnea, appetite loss, constipation, and diarrhea; Spearman rank correlation coefficients ranged from 0.31 to 0.54. For QLQ-BR23 at cycle 6, symptom scores were mostly stable; more pts had worsening in body image and systemic therapy side effects than had improvement and more pts had improvement in breast and arm symptoms than had worsening. Responders also had longer time to symptom deterioration.

Conclusions: In this study of first-line eribulin treatment for HER2- MBC, a majority of pts had stable or improvement in QoL scales. Responders to eribulin were more likely than nonresponders to have stable or improved QoL.

Citation Format: Lee Schwartzberg, Kristi McIntyre, Joyce O'Shaughnessy, Stefan Glück, Erhan Berrak, James Song, David Cox, Linda Vahdat. Quality of life in patients receiving first-line eribulin mesylate for HER2- locally recurrent or MBC [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Thirty-Seventh Annual CTRC-AACR San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium: 2014 Dec 9-13; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(9 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-17-02.