Importance of Quality-of-Life evaluation in cancer chemotherapy for elderly

2022 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 18K07443
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 52010:General internal medicine-related
• Research Institution: Nagoya University
• Principal Investigator: Masahiko Ando 名古屋大学, 医学部附属病院, 病院教授 (10322736)
• Project Period (FY): 2018-04-01 – 2023-03-31
• Keywords: 高齢者 / がん / QOL

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In the chemotherapy for elderly cancer patients, in which risk-benefit balance is generally small, quality of life (QOL) is an important outcome of treatment effectiveness. Based on the data from 3 large scale multi-institutional trials, we examined whether QOL was a predictor of important treatment outcomes after adjustment for performance status, age, gender, clinical stage, histology, and cognitive function, and clarified that preteratment QOL, measured using FACT-L scale, was an independent prognostic factor for overall survival. In addition, we investigated the “clinically meaningful” QOL change in the assessment of neurotoxicity, which is one of the important adverse events caused by cancer chemotherapy, and demonstrated that a 4-point deterioration in the FACT/GOG- Ntx score corresponded to the 1-grade worsening of physician-assessed CTCAE.

Free Research Field

臨床疫学

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究で、生活の質（QOL）が年齢や高齢者機能評価とは独立した予後因子であることが明らかになったことから、高齢がん患者に対する化学療法実施の際に治療開始前のQOL評価を行い、治療アウトカム予測に役立てることが推奨される。また、がん化学療法における神経毒性の指標であるFACT/GOG-Ntxスコアにおいて、4点の変化が医療者評価によるCTCAEの1グレード変化に相当することが明らかとなったことで、抗がん剤による神経毒性の臨床的意義について評価・解釈することが容易となった。