Could baseline health-related quality of life (QoL) predict overall survival in metastatic colorectal cancer? The results of the GERCOR OPTIMOX 1 study

Abstract

Background: Health-related quality of life (QoL) has prognostic value in many cancers. A recent study found that the performance of prognostic systems for metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) were improvable. We evaluated the independent prognostic value of QoL for overall survival (OS) and its ability to improve two prognostic systems'performance (Köhne and GERCOR models) for patients with mCRC.

Methods: The EQ-5D questionnaire was self-completed before randomization in the OPTIMOX1, a phase III trial comparing two strategies of FOLFOX chemotherapy which included 620 previously untreated mCRC patients recruited from January 2000 to June 2002 from 56 institutions in five countries. The improvement in models' performance (after addition of QoL) was studied with Harrell's C-index and the net reclassification improvement.

Results: Of the 620 patients, 249 (40%) completed QoL datasets. The Köhne model could be improved by LDH, mobility and pain/discomfort; the C-index rose from 0.54 to 0.67. The associated NRI for 12-month death was 0.23 [0.05; 0.46]. Mobility and pain/discomfort could be added to the GERCOR model: the C-index varied from 0.63 to 0.68. The NRI for 12 months death was 0.35 [0.12; 0.44].

Conclusions: Mobility and pain dimensions of EQ5D are independent prognostic factors and could be useful for staging and treatment assignment of mCRC patients. Presented at the 2011 ASCO Annual Meeting (#3632).

Figures

Figure 1

Overall survival (in months) of patients lacking QoL data (dotted line; n = 371) and patients with available QoL data (solid line; n = 249). Log-rank p value = 0.62. The median survival times for patient with and without QoL datasets were 18.6 months (95% CI [17.0 - 21.6]) and 20.8 months (95% CI = [19.5–22.2]), respectively.

Figure 2

Overall survival (in months) of patients with mobility problems (as coded 2–3) (dotted line; n = 54) and patients without mobility problems (as coded 1) (solid line; n = 223). Log-rank p value = 0.0011. The median survival times were 20.9 (95% CI = [18.6–24.9]) months and 11.8 (95% CI = [11.1–17.3]) months for patients without problems (coded as 1) and those with problems (as coded 2–3), respectively.

Figure 3

Survival strata according to the Köhne prognostic model before and after improvement. A: Overall survival (in months) for good, intermediate and poor prognosis according to the Köhne prognostic model. Median survival = 20.7 [17.7 – 24.4] for the group with good prognosis (n = 134); Median survival = 18.6 [17.1 – 25.4] for the group with intermediate prognosis (n = 84); Median survival = 9.0 [7.3 -14.7] for the group with poor prognosis (n = 18). Log-rank p = 0.0013. Optimism corrected C-index = 0.54. B: Overall survival (in months) for good, intermediate and poor prognosis according to the modified Köhne group. Median survival = 27.0 [21.1 – 37.5] for the group with good prognosis (n = 57); Median survival = 18.4 [16.5 – 21.6] for the group with intermediate prognosis (n = 146); Median survival = 11.3 [9.0 – 16.9] for the group with poor prognosis (n = 33). Log-rank p<0.0001. Optimism corrected C-index = 0.60.

Figure 4

Survival strata according to the GERCOR prognostic model before and after improvement. A: Overall survival (in months) for good, intermediate and poor prognosis according to the GERCOR prognostic system. Median survival = 28.7 [24.5 – 38.9] for the group with good prognosis (n = 73); Median survival = 19.9 [18.1 – 23.9] for the group with intermediate prognosis (n = 97); Median survival = 12.1 [10.0 – 15.4] for the group with poor prognosis (n = 66). Log-rank p<0.0001. Optimism corrected C-index = 0.65. B: Overall survival (in months) for good, intermediate and poor prognosis according to the modified GERCOR prognostic system. Median survival = 28.2 [24.5 – 37.5] for the group with good prognosis (n = 68); Median survival = 21.6 [18.7 – 26.2] for the group with intermediate prognosis (n = 90); Median survival = 11.5 [10.0 – 14.7] for the group with poor prognosis (n = 78). Log-rank p<0.0001. Optimism corrected C-index = 0.66.