Assessment of health-related quality of life in Japanese patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma during treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors

The objective of this study was to comprehensively analyze the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in Japanese patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) during treatment with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). This study included 240 Japanese mRCC patients treated with TKIs. We conducted a total of 305 surveys assessing the HRQOL before and 3 months after the introduction of TKIs, including 150, 95 and 60 during treatment with sorafenib, sunitinib and axitinib, respectively, using the Medical Outcomes Study 36-Item Short Form, consisting of eight multi-item scales measuring the health status. There were no significant differences in any of the eight scale scores between these 305 surveys conducted before and 3 months after TKI treatment. Two scores in the surveys during axitinib treatment were significantly superior to those during sorafenib treatment; however, no significant differences were noted in any of the remaining scale scores among the surveys during treatment with the three TKIs. Multivariate analyses, which were performed to evaluate the contribution of several factors to each scale score, revealed that the therapeutic efficacy had independent impacts on two scale scores, despite the lack of an independent association between any scores and the remaining factors, including the age, gender, introduced TKI, timing of TKI introduction and degree of adverse events. Collectively, these findings suggest that treatment with TKIs did not result in a significant impairment of the HRQOL in Japanese patients with mRCC; however, patients with unfavorable disease control appeared to fail to achieve a satisfactory HRQOL during treatment with TKIs.