Data presented at the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) annual meeting in Chicago last week, indicated that nivolumab was associated with improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) compared with everolimus in previously treated patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC).

In the phase 3 CheckMate 025 study, previously treated patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma were randomly assigned to nivolumab or everolimus. Patients on nivolumab had an overall survival benefit compared with those given everolimus. HRQoL data were collected at baseline and during treatment with nivolumab or everolimus. The mean difference in scores between the nivolumab and everolimus groups was 1·6, and more patients had a clinically meaningful (i.e., an increase of at least 2 points from baseline) HRQoL improvement with nivolumab (55% of patients) versus everolimus (37% of patients). Median time to HRQoL improvement was shorter in patients given nivolumab (4·7 months) than in patients given everolimus.

These results suggest that the assessment of quality of life may be helpful for evaluating the extent of overall survival benefit in clinical practice.

Read more here and read the ASCO abstract here