Patient-reported outcomes in patients with metastatic non-squamous non-small cell lung cancer from the randomized Phase II PERLA trial comparing first-line chemotherapy plus dostarlimab or pembrolizumab

Background PERLA (NCT04581824) compared efficacy and safety of dostarlimab (DCT) or pembrolizumab (PCT) plus chemotherapy as first-line treatment for metastatic non-small cell lung cancer. Here, we report patient-reported outcomes (PROs; exploratory analysis) from PERLA. Methods Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive DCT or PCT every 3 weeks (Q3W) for <= 35 cycles [C]. PROs (EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13, PRO-CTCAE, FACT-GP5) were collected at baseline, Q3W until C4, Q9W until C16, Q12W until end of treatment and at 30-day safety follow-up. Change from baseline and time to deterioration (TTD) in QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13 were analyzed using longitudinal mixed models and Kaplan-Meier estimators, respectively. Results The PRO (DCT/PCT) datasets included 102/99 patients for QLQ-C30, 96/90 for QLQ-LC13, 96/88 for PRO-CTCAE, and 95/87 for FACT-GP5. Completion rates were > 80 % to C4, then decreased in both arms. For QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13, most patients reported stable/improved responses at C13 (similar to 9 months on treatment), with similar responses between arms except more patients reported improvements in dyspnea (QLQ-C30: 36.4 % vs 13.0 %; QLQ-LC13: 40.6 % vs 25.0 %) and chest pain (QLQ-LC13: 34.4 % vs 10.0 %) with DCT vs PCT. TTD per QLQ-C30 and QLQ-LC13 were similar between arms, although TTD in dyspnea was longer with DCT vs PCT (QLQ-LC13: 4.24 vs 1.54 months; p = 0.0168). Most patients in both arms reported that adverse events occurred occasionally/rarely/never with moderate/mild severity. Overall, patients reported little/no bother from treatment side effects. Conclusions DCT maintained health-related quality of life similarly to PCT and was well tolerated, supporting the PERLA primary results and dostarlimab use in future regimens.