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Data from the phase 3 METEOR trial published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology recently show that treatment of advanced kidney cancer patients with cabozantinib resulted in similar quality of life (QoL) outcomes as for patients treated with everolimus. Cabozantinib also improved progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), and overall response rate (ORR) compared with everolimus.
The METEOR trial recruited 658 patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC), who were randomised to receive either cabozantinib or everolimus. Patients were asked to complete two QoL questionnaires at baseline, at each clinic visit before any assessments, every 4 weeks for 25 weeks, and every 8 weeks thereafter for the first year. The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Kidney Symptom Index-19 (FKSI-19) questionnaire evaluates disease-related symptoms (DRS), treatment side effects, and function/wellbeing, while the EuroQol Group’s five-level (EQ-5D-5L) questionnaire assesses 5 metrics of health status: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression.
Questionnaire completion rates were more than 75% among all patients for 48 weeks. When analysed, there were no differences between the two treatment groups for the QoL questionnaires, and adverse event profiles were largely consistent with those previously reported: patients in cabozantinib arm reported higher rates of nausea and diarrhoea, and patients in the everolimus arm reported more incidences of shortness of breath.
