Lee CK, et al. - The self-reported symptoms in patients with advanced non–small-cell lung cancer patients treated with osimertinib or chemotherapy in the AURA3 phase III trial were studied. Osimertinib vs chemotherapy provided longer time to deterioration of key symptoms as well as improvement in global health status and QoL in a higher proportion of patients. Overall, osimertinib offered improved patient outcomes.

Methods

• Researchers asked patients to complete the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer 13-item Quality of Life Questionnaire-Lung Cancer Module (EORTC QLQ-LC13) questionnaire on disease-specific symptoms and the EORTC 30-item Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (EORTC QLC-C30) on general cancer symptoms, functioning, global health status, and quality of life.
• They evaluated differences between treatments in time to deterioration of individual symptoms and odds of improvement (definition of a deterioration or improvement was a change in score from baseline of ≥ 10).
• They used a log-rank test stratified by ethnicity to calculate hazard ratios (HRs).
• They used logistic regression adjusted for ethnicity to assess odds ratios (ORs).

Results

• Data showed that 82% to 88% of patients completed the questionnaires at baseline and 30% to 70% had individual key symptoms.
• Osimertinib vs chemotherapy resulted in longer time to deterioration for cough (HR, 0.74; 95% CI, 0.53 to 1.05), chest pain (HR, 0.52; 95% CI, 0.37 to 0.73), and dyspnea (HR, 0.42; 95% CI, 0.31 to 0.58).
• Higher proportion of symptomatic patients showed improvement in global health status and quality of life with osimertinib (80 [37%] of 215) vs chemotherapy (23 [22%] of 105; OR, 2.11; 95% CI, 1.24 to 3.67; P=.007).
• Higher proportions were noted for appetite loss (OR, 2.50; 95% CI, 1.31 to 4.84) and fatigue (OR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.20 to 3.22).