This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) Purchase Article View Shopping Cart Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a colleague Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Save to my personal folders Download to citation manager Rights & Permissions Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Heinzer, H. Articles by Huland, H. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Heinzer, H. Articles by Huland, H. Social Bookmarking                            What's this?

Subjective and Objective Prospective, Long-Term Analysis of Quality of Life During Inhaled Interleukin-2 Immunotherapy

From the Department of Urology, University of Hamburg, and University Clinic Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany.

Address reprint requests to Hans Heinzer, MD, Department of Urology, University Clinic Eppendorf, Martinistr 52, 20246 Hamburg, Germany; email heinzer{at}uhr.uni-hamburg.de

PURPOSE: We conducted both a subjective and objective, prospective quality-of-life analysis during high-dose (36 x 10⁶ immunizing units/d) inhalational interleukin (IL)-2 treatment (mean treatment time, 13.4 months) of 15 patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC). Additionally, quality of life for 10 patients with mRCC receiving low-dose (9 x 10⁶ IU/m²/d for 5 days) intravenous IL-2 treatment also was evaluated.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients responded to the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality-of-life questionnaire QLQ-C30 before and during inhalational IL-2 treatment at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months and before and once during intravenous IL-2 treatment. A clinician assessed patient well-being using the Quality of Well-Being scale to calculate once weekly quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) during inhalational IL-2 treatment.

RESULTS: Patients completed 103 questionnaires and clinicians performed 892 QALY calculations. For patients treated with inhalational IL-2, the mean quality-of-life score deteriorated modestly but significantly 1 month after treatment initiation (15.1%, P = .01) but did not differ significantly from pretreatment scores after 3, 6, 9, and 12 months of treatment. Inhalational IL-2 therapy stabilized patient quality of life for a mean of 13.4 months. The resulting QALY calculation for patients on inhalation IL-2 was 70.1% of 13.4 months, representing 9.4 months of QALY. In comparison, patients who received intravenous IL-2 showed a more marked, statistically significant deterioration in mean quality-of-life score during treatment (27%, P = .006); moreover, three of these 10 patients experienced treatment-related toxicity that prevented questionnaire completion.

CONCLUSION: Quality-of-life analysis during immunotherapy provides valuable information regarding cancer treatment outcomes.

Financial disclosure: H.H., T.S.M., E.H., and H.H. do not own stock or options in Chiron Therapeutics but have received research support from Chiron Therapeutics.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Facebook    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S. Sharma, D. White, A. R. Imondi, M. E. Placke, D. M. Vail, and M. G. Kris Development of Inhalational Agents for Oncologic Use J. Clin. Oncol., March 15, 2001; 19(6): 1839 - 1847. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]