Quality of life in cancer patients receiving chemotherapy vs immunotherapy in tertiary hospital settings

Abstract

Author(s): Marwan Mahtook*, Abul Kalam Najmi, Abhishek Raj and Ankur Bahl

There are various therapies in the management of tumours. Immunotherapy is one of the most promising developed treatments included in the second line of many treatment protocols. The quality of life concept was recently evaluated in numerous RCTs to support the evidence in the selection of those therapies in treatment regimens.

Aim: To evaluate the quality of life in cancer patients and compare it in two intervention groups, first received chemotherapy alone or plus immunotherapy and second only immunotherapy.

Study design and method: Observational cross-sectional study, the study population of 92 cancer patients divided into two groups (Group A; chemo alone or with immunotherapy, and Group B Immunotherapy alone) visited Fortis Memorial Research Institute's chemo-daycare the period between September 11th, 2020 and April 28th, 2021. They evaluated QOL by administering the 3-level version of EQ-5D (EQ-5D-3L) and The Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy - General (FACT-G) questionnaires.

Results: Of the total study population, 65.2% of patients received chemotherapy alone or with immunotherapy, and 56.5% received only immunotherapy. The VAS score and all domains of E.Q. 5D-3L were statically significant at the follow-up, and in comparison to FACT-G scores, it was highest at week 15 and in comparison of both study arm group B shows a significant P-value is<0.05.

Conclusion: Results suggest the quality of life in cancer patients receiving immunotherapy is higher than in those who receive chemotherapy alone or plus immunotherapy; the improvement is well observed in week 12. Age, gender, stage, site of tumours, and the adverse events of the treatment directly affect the QOL

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