ALBERT

Description: Background: Understanding health-related quality of life (HRQOL) profile, including functional aspects and symptom burden, of yet untreated patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is important to help clinicians to better identify subgroup of patients in need of special attention from the very beginning of therapy. Aims: The primary objective of this study was to investigate baseline (i.e., pretreatment) HRQOL profile of untreated patients with lower-risk MDS, examining differences by age, gender, risk score category and comorbidity. A secondary objective was to provide age and sex baseline reference HRQOL values, according to the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire, to be used as benchmark comparisons in future MDS studies. Methods: This analysis is based on 443 newly diagnosed adult MDS patients with International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) risk score of low (46 %) or intermediate-1 (54%), enrolled in an international prospective cohort observational study. Median age was 75 years (range 32-94), with 261 men (59%) and 182 (41%) women. HRQOL was assessed by the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire at study entry, before any treatment (except for transfusions). This well validated questionnaire consists of five functioning scales: physical, role, emotional, cognitive and social; three symptom scales: fatigue, nausea/ vomiting and pain; six single item scales: dyspnoea, sleep disturbance, appetite loss, constipation, diarrhea and financial impact; and the global health status/HRQOL scale. The items were scaled and scored using the recommended EORTC procedures. At the time of baseline HRQOL assessment, 111 (25%) patients had received at least one red blood cell transfusion. We used Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests for all comparisons. We used the false discovery rate approach to account for multiple testing, with a nominal α-level=0.05. In addition to statistical significance, clinically relevant HRQOL differences were also evaluated based on previously published criteria (Cocks K, et al, J Clin Oncol 29:89-96, 2011). Results: There were not statistically significant differences in any of the HRQOL scales measured by the EORTC QLQ-C30, by the specific IPSS risk category (i.e., low risk vs intermediate-1 risk score). Overall, women reported worse HRQOL scores than men, with clinically relevant differences for physical (Δ=-7.1, P=0.002), role (Δ=-9.9, P=0.002) and emotional functioning, (Δ=-10, P

Description: Abstract 4953 Background: Shared decision-making between patients and physicians is broadly advocated in medicine, however little research is available to understand whether this approach would be desirable to all patients regardless of disease type and severity or individual patient characteristics. While clinical decision-making in high-risk myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is critical for a number of reasons including: associated comorbidity, symptom burden, and limited life expectancy, no evidence-base data currently exist on patients' preferences. Aim: The objective of this study is twofold: 1) to investigate to what extent high-risk MDS patients prefer to be involved in treatment decision making during consultation just after diagnosis; 2) to identify possible clinical, socio-demographic and patient-reported health status factors associated with patients' preferences for involvement in treatment decisions. Patients and Methods: Data were gathered through an ongoing international prospective observational study involving 15 countries that recruits newly diagnosed patients with intermediate-2 or high-risk IPSS score. All patients were classified according to the WHO histology classification. During the first encounter with their treating physicians, discussing treatment options just after diagnosis, patients were administered a previously internationally validated “control preference scale”. This scale broadly categorizes patients into one of three roles depending on the extent of their preferred involvement in treatment decision-making: “active” (where the patient themselves prefer to decide on which would be the most appropriate treatment option for themselves); “collaborative/shared” (where the patient and the doctor jointly decided on the most appropriate treatment option); “passive” (where the patient prefer to leave decision on the most appropriate treatment option to the doctor). Associations with the following variables were investigated: performance status, comorbidity (“Hematopoietic Cell Transplantation”-“Comorbidity index”), living arrangements, age, gender, education, cultural group, IPSS risk category, evolution from lower IPSS risk scores and patient-reported symptoms (using symptom scales of the EORTC QLQ-C30). Descriptive statistics were used and Mann-Whitney U-test, Kruskall-Wallis test and Fisher's exact test were used as appropriate to test statistical significance of performed comparisons. Results: Study population included overall 121 patients (38% female and 62% male). Mean age of patients was 69 years (min:31.3 max: 87.9) and 80% were diagnosed with IPSS int-2 risk score and 20% with IPSS high risk score. Twenty-six percent evolved from lower IPSS risk scores, while 74% were newly diagnosed with higher-risk. Forty-nine percent favored a passive while only 13% preferred an active role in treatment decision-making; the remaining 38% favored a collaborative/shared decision-making approach. Investigation of factors possibly related to preferred roles, found that passive role was significantly associated with lower education levels (P=.04). Among lower educated patients, 62.5% preferred a passive role compared with only 5% preferring an active role. When investigating relationships with patient-reported symptoms, a general trend for patients preferring a passive role, showing worse outcomes, was also evident. Higher symptom mean scores were found for passive vs. active role groups, being respectively: 46 (sd.26.6) vs. 37 (sd.29.9) for fatigue; 20 (sd.31.8) vs. 2 (sd.8.6) for constipation; 34 (sd.33) vs. 24 (sd.29.5) for dyspnea. Exploratory analysis showed that overall mean symptom score was statistically significant worse in patients preferring a passive role vs. those preferring an active role (P=.01). While other trends of associations were noted, these were not statistically significant. Conclusion: This is the first evidence suggesting that a consistent percentage of high-risk MDS patients prefer a passive role when discussing treatment options with their treating physicians at the time of diagnosis. There is also an indication that these patients are those with lower education levels and presenting with a higher symptom burden. Results need to be confirmed in a larger sample size. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Description: Background: Patients myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) diagnosed with higher-risk disease have poor prognosis thus making improvements in health-related quality of life (HRQOL) a major goal of therapy. Understanding HRQOL profile of untreated patients is important to help clinicians to better target subpopulations in need of special attention from the very beginning of therapy. Aims: The primary objective of this study is to investigate whether HRQOL differences exist by age and gender in untreated patients with higher-risk MDS. A secondary objective is to provide age and gender pretreatment HRQOL profiles to be used as reference baseline data for comparing HRQOL of MDS patients under treatments. Methods: This analysis is based on 280 adult patients diagnosed with IPSS risk score of intermediate-2 (74%) and high-risk (26%), enrolled in an international prospective observational study. Median age of patients was 71 years (range 32-89), 176 were men (63%) and 104 (37%) women. HRQOL was assessed at study entry and before treatment for higher-risk disease (except for transfusions), with the EORTC QLQ-C30, the most widely used HRQOL outcome measure in MDS research. Thus, our data are likely to further ease interpretation of outcomes in many studies using this questionnaire. One hundred seventy-five patients had received at least one red blood cell transfusion at the time of baseline HRQOL assessment. HRQoL data of MDS patients were age-gender matched with those general population norms. Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon signed ranks tests were used for unmatched and matched comparisons, respectively (α=0.05). Effect sizes were also computed. Results: No statistically significant differences existed in any of the HRQOL domain by IPSS category (intermediate-2 versus high-risk). However, HRQOL profiles differed by age and gender and results are reported in Table 1. Women generally reported lower HRQOL scores than men, with statistically significant impairments in the global quality of life (P=0.008), role (P=0.014), emotional (P=0.024) and social functioning (P=0.028). When compared to their peers in the general population, HRQOL was found to be impaired in all age group categories (Figure 1, A and B). However, the magnitude of impairments across HRQOL domains was markedly larger in younger patients (aged 30-59 years) compared to older age groups (≥60 years). The top three largest impairments in this younger group were found for: fatigue (ES=2.47, P

Description: Background Adherence to the prescribed dose of tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) is critical to maximize treatment effectiveness in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). While patient-centered outcome studies are lacking in this area, literature has shown that a significant proportion of patients report both intentional and unintentional non-adherence. Objective The main objective of this multivariate analysis was to identify risk factors that might predict intentional non-adherence to TKIs in CML. Methods The CML Advocates Network, connecting 79 CML patient groups from 63 countries, conducted an international project investigating patterns of medication-taking behaviors of CML patients, supported by CML investigator groups in Germany, Italy and France. We sought to demonstrate the relationship between 16 factors and adherence in this multinational cohort. A web-based survey was launched in 12 languages, enrolling CML patients from Sept 2012 to Jan 2013. The identical questionnaire was provided to a cohort of patients recruited in clinics in France, Germany and Italy, returned by patients in a pre-stamped envelope to an independent data center. Questions included potential factors associated with non-adherence as well as on patients' perception of disease and treatment burden. Based on previous literature and on clinical relevance, a pool of 16 candidate factors, potentially predicting intentional non-adherence, was selected for analysis. These included: frequency of CML medication, co-payment for CML treatment, and current TKI therapy. Patients who reported having skipped intentionally one or more doses over the last year were considered as “intentional non-adherers”. Univariate logistic regression analysis was performed to examine the impact of pre-selected candidate factors on the probability of intentional non-adherence. Two multivariate models were fitted based on line of therapy received by patients (i.e. first line and second or greater lines of therapy). Results This patient-led study is the largest study conducted to date on the influencers of non-adherence in CML. Overall, 2546 adult CML patients (47.6% female) under TKI treatment from 79 countries responded to the survey. 2151 patients responded online, 395 questionnaires were returned on paper. No significant difference on intentional non-adherence was observed between paper or online responses. Median age of patients was 51 years (range 18-96) and median time from diagnosis was 4 years (0-27). Overall, 51.6% of all respondents reported having missed at least one dose unintentionally over the last year, and 19.5% did so intentionally. This analysis regards the intentional non-adherent population (n=490). Of those, 60% were on imatinib, 20% on nilotinib, 14% on dasatinib, 6% on other TKIs. Several factors predicted intentional non-adherence in univariate analysis, including education level (P=0.016) and co-payment for TKIs (P=0.005). For patients on first line TKI (n=1551), the following factors independently predicted a higher likelihood of being intentional non-adherers: younger age (P=0.015), longer time since diagnosis (P

Description: Background: One of the main challenges in the treatment of chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) is the selection of second line therapy. While Nilotinib (NILO) and dasatinib (DASA) are available for use as second line treatment for several years, few evidence-based data is available on how physicians make decisions on the use of one drug over another. Aim: We performed a pilot study to describe which factors physicians consider most relevant when deciding therapy with either NILO or DASA in patients who previously failed or were intolerant to Imatinib (IMA) therapy. Patients and methods: Analyses are based on a sample 67 CML patients, recruited as part of a larger international study, who switched from IMA therapy to either NILO (N=36; 53.7%) or DASA (N=31; 46.3%). Patients had to be in second line treatment for at least three months to be eligible for this analysis. Also, in all participating centers, NILO and DASA should have been equally available for use. There were 15 physicians involved in the management of these patients and they were asked to complete an ad-hoc questionnaire investigating reasons based on which they made the decision to either use one drug over another. All questions were phrased as follows: "To what extent have the following issues been determinant to make a decision on which agent (NILO or DASA) to use for this patient?" All answers were rated on a four point likert-scale (ie, not at all, a little, quite a bit and very much). Items investigated were: 1) accessibility of the drug in the hospital; 2) cost of drug; 3) patients' comorbidities; 4) patients' age; 5) patients' personality profile; 6) discussion with patients about Pro and Cons; 7) different treatment schedule of drugs; 8) type of mutation during IMA therapy. Physician characteristics were also collected and analyzed. Other treatment-related variables were investigated such as main reason for changing of TKI (IMA intolerance or resistance), high grade adverse events (AEs) experienced during IMA treatment, or previous duration of IMA therapy. Results: Physicians' experience in treating CML patients was on average 14 years (range 4-32). Patient median age at the time of treatment switch was 47 and 55 years in the NILO and DASA group, respectively. Median time of duration of IMA therapy, before receiving second line therapy, was 1.4 years and 3.3 years for those who switched respectively to NILO or DASA. No differences existed between groups with regard to reasons for switching from IMA therapy (intolerance or resistance) or AEs reported with previous IMA therapy. The top issue considered as most relevant when making the decision was previous discussion with patients on advantages and disadvantages of drugs, being reported as "quite a bit" and "very much" important in 73% of evaluations. Cost of the drug was not considered relevant at all, in the selection of which drug to use, in 97% of the 69 evaluations considered. Also, type of mutation during IMA therapy was considered as of negligible relevance for the decision, but it should not be overlooked that mutations were detected in few patients. Patient's comorbidity or personality profile was quoted as a 'quite a bit' or 'very much' relevant reason for the selection of 2nd line TKI, respectively in 43% or 48% of all questionnaires. Low relevance was assigned to patient age and different treatment schedule: 'not at all' or 'a little' relevance was reported respectively in 64% and 70% of all questionnaires. The analysis of physician-reported grading distribution according to the type of second line treatment did not show any significant difference (no reason lead to a preferential selection of one drug), see table 1. Conclusions: No differences were detectablein selected factors, driving the decision to switch either to NILO or DASA when physicians consider switching from first line IMA therapy. Also, type of TKI selection does not seems to be guided by only one factor. Further research is needed to elucidate on potential reasons underlying clinical decision making in 2nd TKI selection. Disclosures Efficace: Seattle Genetics: Consultancy; TEVA: Consultancy, Research Funding; Lundbeck: Research Funding; Bristol Myers Squibb: Consultancy. Rosti:Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Ariad: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau. Breccia:Celgene: Honoraria; Pfizer: Honoraria; Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria; Bristol Myers Squibb: Honoraria; Ariad: Honoraria. Baccarani:Novartis: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; BMS: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau; Ariad: Consultancy, Honoraria, Speakers Bureau.

Description: Abstract 3163 Background: Fatigue can potentially compromise activities of daily living and functional abilities in patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS). These patients typically also have a limited life expectancy, thus making the improvement of health-related quality of life an important goal of therapy. However, there is paucity of evidence-based data in this area. Aims: To investigate the relationships between fatigue and physical, social and emotional functions in high-risk MDS patients and to evaluate socio-demographic and clinical characteristics associated with fatigue. Methods: Newly diagnosed patients with intermediate-2 or high-risk IPSS score are recruited in an international prospective observational study. Current analysis is based on patients recruited in 37 centers. A number of socio-demographic, clinical and laboratory variables were collected prior to treatment. Also, fatigue and functional abilities were measured before treatment start. Fatigue was evaluated with the FACIT-Fatigue scale. This is a simple 13-item psychometrically robust questionnaire that assesses self-reported tiredness, weakness and difficulty conducting usual activities due to fatigue. Functional abilities and quality of life (QoL) were assessed with the EORTC QLQ-C30. Both questionnaires have undergone rigorous linguistic cross-cultural validation and were available for all patients in the appropriate language. Functional aspects investigated included: physical (PF), role (RF), emotional (EF), cognitive (CF) and social functioning (SF). These scales range from 0 to 100, with higher scores representing better outcomes. Based on previous research, 10-points were considered to be a minimally important difference (MID) for the functional and QoL scales investigated. A score difference at least equal to MID was considered as a clinically meaningful difference. The cohort was divided into four groups based on the FACIT-Fatigue scores quartiles and patients were defined as having low, low/medium, medium/high and high fatigue levels. All variables investigated were summarized according to fatigue levels. Associations between fatigue levels and functional aspects, socio-demographic characteristics (i.e., age, gender, living arrangements, education) and clinical data (i.e., performance status and IPSS risk) were investigated using Chi-square and Kruskall-Wallis tests as appropriate. Multivariate stepwise regression analysis was also performed to investigate the impact of self-reported fatigue on functional scales. Results: Analysis is based on 240 patients, of whom 77% and 23% respectively classified with intermediate-2 and high-risk IPSS score. Median age of patients was 71 years (36% female and 64% male) and 49% had at least one comorbidity. Seventy-three percent of patients had an ECOG performance status ≥1. Patients with higher levels of fatigue reported worse scores in all functional aspects investigated. PF, RF and SF scales were found to be the most compromised aspects by fatigue severity. Mean score differences, between patients reporting low versus high fatigue levels were not only statistically significant (P

Description: Background Anemia is a common symptom in patients with Myelodysplastic Syndromes (MDS) and although erythropoietic agents are often active, it is frequently treated with red blood cell (RBC) transfusions. A substantial proportion of patients might also eventually become transfusion-dependent and, Iron-chelating therapies might be important to minimize complications of iron overload. Objectives To investigate the impact of deferasirox therapy on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of lower risk transfusion-dependent MDS patients over a one year period. Secondary objectives were to investigate relationships between HRQOL and ferritin levels and to explore the prognostic value of baseline HRQOL on the probability of achieving transfusion independence. Patients and Methods This was a prospective study whose clinical findings (i.e., primary endpoint was safety and tolerability) were previously reported. HRQOL was a secondary endpoint of the study and we herein report, for the first time, HRQOL prospective findings. Eligible patients included: MDS patients 18 years or older, International Prognostic Scoring System (IPSS) low or intermediate-1 risk and diagnosed with transfusional siderosis following a minimum of 20 blood transfusions. Patients received daily oral deferasirox at a dose between 10 and 30 mg/kg of body weight for a period of 1 year. HRQOL was assessed with the EORTC QLQ-C30. HRQOL at baseline and at 3, 6, 9 and 12 months after treatment start. The EORTC QLQ-C30 consists of 30 items and includes five functional scales (physical, role, emotional, social, and cognitive), three symptom (fatigue, nausea and vomiting and pain) and a global health status/QOL scale and six single items (dyspnea, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, diarrhea and financial difficulties). The mean trend of HRQOL over time was estimated via a linear mixed model with a one-step autoregressive covariance structure. Such covariance structure provided the best model fit among those investigated. Results Overall, 159 patients were screened at 37 centers. The median duration of disease at enrollment was 32 months and median number of units of packed RBC received was 37. Seven patients did not start treatment at all and thus there were 152 expected HRQOL forms at baseline assessment. Out of these, 146 patients returned the questionnaire yielding a baseline compliance of 96%. No statistically significant differences over time were found for any scale of the EORTC QLQ-C30. Figure 1 depicts mean scores over time for selected scales of: fatigue, physical functioning, pain and global HRQOL. No HRQOL differences were found between patients with serum ferritin levels lower or higher than 2000 μg/L (pretreatment median value) at baseline. Also, the possible impact of ferritin level on HRQoL over time was estimated via a linear mixed model with a one-step autoregressive covariance structure. Coefficients and p values are reported in table 1. The prognostic impact of baseline HRQOL on the probability of achieving transfusion independence (i.e., defined as freedom from transfusion for 3 consecutive months) was investigated. Higher severity of pain (P=0.007) was associated with a greater likelihood of achieving transfusion independence. Multivariate analysis, controlling for age, IPSS risk score, time from diagnosis, number of previous blood transfusions and baseline ferritin level confirmed the independent value of pain (P=0.003). Conclusion Current findings suggest that Deferasirox therapy does not decrease HRQOL in lower risk transfusion-dependent MDS patients. Patients with higher baseline pain severity seems more likely to achieve transfusion independence and further analysis is needed to understand underlying reasons. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

Description: The main objective of this study was to investigate whether patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) in treatment with long-term therapy imatinib have a different health-related quality-of-life (HRQOL) profile compared with the general population. In total, 448 CML patients were enrolled, and the SF-36 Health Survey was used to compare generic HRQOL profiles. Symptoms were also assessed. HRQOL comparisons were adjusted for key possible confounders. The median age of patients was 57 years and the median time of imatinib treatment was 5 years (range 3-9 years). The largest HRQOL differences were found in younger patients. In particular, patients aged between 18 and 39 years had marked impairments in role limitations because of physical and emotional problems, respectively: −22.6 (P 〈 .001), −22.3 (P 〈 .001). Patients with CML age 60 or older had a HRQOL profile very similar to that reported by the general population. Women had a worse profile than men when each were compared with their peers in the general population. Fatigue was the most frequently reported symptom. The HRQOL of CML patients is comparable with that of population norms in many areas, however, younger and female patients seem to report the major limitations.

Description: Background The combination of all-trans retinoic acid (ATRA) and anthracycline-based chemotherapy regimens is currently considered the standard of care for newly diagnosed acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) patients. This combination has greatly contributed to convert APL from a frequently fatal disease to a highly curable one. However, there is lack of data on the impact of such therapies on patients’ health-related quality of life (HRQOL). Objective The main objective of this study was thus to investigate long-term HRQOL of APL patients previously treated with ATRA plus anthracycline-based chemotherapy. The physical and mental HRQOL profile of these patients was compared with that of matched control subjects from the general population to identify specific areas most in need of attention in long-term follow-up care. A secondary objective was to outline symptoms’ burden from the patients’ perspective. Patients and Methods Data were gathered through an ongoing multicenter survivorship study that recruits APL patients previously enrolled in two large GIMEMA trials (i.e., AIDA0493 and AIDA 2000). In both trials, APL patients were treated with ATRA plus Idrarubicin (AIDA). The main inclusion criterion was having survived the initial diagnosis for more than 5 years and being in complete remission (CR). Generic HRQOL was assessed with the SF-36 that consists of 36 items covering eight generic health status/QoL domains: physical functioning (PF), role limitations due to physical health (RP), bodily pain (BP), general health perceptions (GH), vitality (VT), social functioning (SF), role limitations due to emotional problems (RE) and mental health (MH). All scales ranged between 0 and 100, with the higher scores representing better outcomes. Clinical significance was evaluated and eight points were considered to be a minimally important difference for the eight SF-36 scales. Mean SF-36 scores were compared to available national general population reference values (i.e., 1997 subjects without cancer) and all analyses were adjusted for age and gender. Symptom burden was assessed according to the M.D. Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI). Symptom severity was assessed for the following symptoms: fatigue, pain, sleep disturbance, drowsiness, poor appetite, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, dry mouth, numbness, difficulty remembering, distress and sadness. All items were rated on a numeric rating scale from 0 to 10, with the higher scores indicating a higher level of symptoms. These were categorized as “mild” (ratings between 0 and 3) and “moderate to severe” (ratings between 4 to 10). Results Analysis is based on 136 adult APL patients who agreed to participate. At study participation, the mean age of patients was 52 years (55% males and 45% females) and the median time from diagnosis was 13 years (range: 4.5-20). Age and gender adjusted comparisons between APL patients and the general population norms revealed worse outcomes for the following scales: RP (P