Real-World Health-Related Quality of Life in Patients with Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma: Comparisons with Reference Populations and By Line of Therapy

Introduction: Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is the most common type of aggressive non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL) constituting 30-58% of all NHL (Tilly et al, 2015; Thieblemont et al, 2020). Treatment can include intensive multiagent chemotherapy and other novel therapies which carries risk for toxicities. Despite this, we lack data comprehensively depicting the quality of life of real-world patients with DLBCL, particularly in the modern era with novel therapies. Therefore, we aimed to compare Quality of Life (QoL) to reference populations and assess real-world DLBCL patients across multiple countries and lines of therapy.

Methods: Real-world data were drawn from the Adelphi DLBCL Disease Specific Programme™ (DSP), a point-in-time survey of hematologists, hemato-oncologists, oncologists and their patients with DLBCL conducted in France (FR), Germany (DE), Italy (IT), Spain (SP), the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States of America (US) between Jan-May 2021. Patients were asked to voluntarily complete a patient self-completion form (PSC) capturing demographics and QoL data through the use of patient-reported outcome instruments: the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life questionnaire (EORTC QLQ-C30), EuroQol 5-dimension 5-level questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L), EQ-5D-5L Visual Analogue Scale and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment questionnaire. Bivariate analysis was conducted to compare all cancer and NHL-specific reference values from the EORTC QLQ-C30 manual (Scott et al, 2008) to DLBCL DSP data, and to review QoL across lines of therapy, defined as first line and second line (1L+2L) and third line and above (3L+). Statistical significance level was set at p<.05. If functional scores were lower, when compared to reference values, within the DSP, this was indicative of a worse QoL in patients with DLBCL. For symptomatic scores the opposite was true; should the DSP value be higher, this was indicative of a worse QoL in patients with DLBCL.

Results: Data analysis was conducted on 441 patients with DLBCL who completed a PSC (FR: n=80, DE: n=150, IT: n=54, SP: n=43, UK: n=34, US: n=80); at data collection, mean (standard deviation) age was 64.6 (12.39) years, 36% of patients were female, 19% working full- or part-time and 80% were relapsed/refractory, 29% were 3L+. 8%, 24%, 28% and 40% were at Ann Arbor disease stage I, II, III and IV respectively at the time of data collection.

When comparing DLBCL DSP values to EORTC QLQ-C30 all cancer reference values for functional scores (Table 1), global health status, physical functioning, role functioning, emotional functioning, cognitive functioning and social functioning were significantly worse than all cancer reference values.

In terms of symptoms, DSP values for fatigue, nausea and vomiting, dyspnea, appetite loss and diarrhea were significantly worse than all cancer reference values (Table 2).

Results were mixed when comparing with EORTC QLQ-C30 NHL-specific reference values (Table 1) for functional scores; global health status was significantly worse for the DLBCL DSP population, whilst role functioning, cognitive functioning and social functioning were significantly better than NHL reference values. Significantly worse symptom scores were observed in the DLBCL DSP population (Table 2) for nausea and vomiting, pain, dyspnea and diarrhea when compared with the reference values.

Functioning scores were significantly worse in 3L+ patients vs 1L+2L for global health status, physical functioning, role functioning, cognitive functioning and social functioning (Table 3).

Fatigue, dyspnea and diarrhea symptomatic scores were significantly worse in 3L+ vs 1L+2L patients. Symptom burden was high across all lines of therapy (Table 4).

Conclusion: Real-world patients with DLBCL demonstrated significantly worse QoL when compared with a general cancer reference population with respect to all functional scores, as well as fatigue, nausea and vomiting, dyspnea, appetite loss and diarrhea, underscoring the high symptom burden experienced by patients with DLBCL.

Patients with DLBCL on 3L+ had significantly worse QoL than those on earlier lines of therapy with respect to global health status, physical functioning, role functioning, cognitive functioning and social functioning, fatigue, dyspnea and diarrhea indicating an unmet need in novel treatment options to help improve QoL in later lines.