Improved Quality of Life in Metastatic Castration-Resistant Prostate Cancer Patients Receiving Consecutive Cycles of 177Lu-PSMA I&T

The aim of this retrospective analysis was to evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) receiving consecutive cycles of 177Lu-prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) radioligand therapy (RLT) using the reliable and validated European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer core quality-of-life (QoL) question-naire. In addition, differences in HRQoL between patients with early discontinuation of treatment because of disease progression and patients who were defined as eligible for treatment continuation were analyzed.Methods: In total, 60 mCRPC patients were included in this analysis. The European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer core QoL questionnaire was completed at baseline, before each treatment cycle up to the sixth treatment cycle, and at the time of PSMA-ligand PET/CT scans after the second and fourth treatment cycles. QoL assessment included global health status, functional scales, and symptom burden during treatment.Results: Global health was significantly improved at the second and fourth cycles of 177Lu-PSMA RLT (P = 0.014 and P = 0.039, respectively). In line with this, role and emotional functioning showed significant improvements at the second and fourth treatment cycles (role functioning, P = 0.045 and P = 0.048, respectively, and emotional functioning, P = 0.035 and P = 0.007, respectively). In addition, compared with baseline, fatigue and pain were significantly alleviated at the second and fourth treatment cycles (pain, P = 0.035 and P = 0.034, respectively, and fatigue, P = 0.042 and P = 0.041, respectively). Other aspects of HRQoL, even if not significantly improved, remained stable over time, except for deterioration of fatigue at the study's end (P = 0.014) and reduction of dyspnea at the second treatment cycle (P = 0.012). Patients with early discontinuation of treatment showed a concordant decline in HRQoL.Conclusion: mCRPC patients showed significant improvement in HRQoL in the course of treatment with 177Lu-PSMA RLT. Furthermore, patients with early discontinuation of treatment showed an analogous decline in HRQoL.