Comparison of quality-adjusted survival in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma receiving first-line treatment with temsirolimus (TEMSR) or interferon-α (IFN) or the combination of IFN+TEMSR

5049 Background: In a phase 3, randomized, 3-arm study of TEMSR or IFN or the combination of TEMSR + IFN in the first-line treatment of patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) and poor-prognostic features, TEMSR improved overall survival (p=0.0069) and progression-free survival (p=0.0001) vs. IFN (Hudes et al. J Clin Oncol. 2006;24:LBA4). Quality-adjusted survival was a pre-defined endpoint and is reported. Methods: Quality-adjusted time without symptoms and toxicity (QTWiST) was estimated by partitioning overall survival into 3 distinct health states: time with serious toxicity, time with progression, and time without symptoms and toxicity (TWiST). Survival was value-weighted when patients completed quality of life questionnaires (EQ-5D) at weeks 12 and 32, when a grade 3 or 4 adverse event (AE) was reported, upon relapse or progression, or upon withdrawal from the study. Treatment group comparisons used restricted means analyses estimated from censored survival data. Restricted means were computed for duration of each health state by truncating data at median follow-up (17.9 months). Variance and covariance were estimated using bootstrap methods. Results: All 626 randomized patients in the study were included in computation of health state durations. EQ-5D questionnaires were obtained from 260/300 (87%) upon progression and 230/570 (40%) after a grade 3/4 AE. Patients receiving TEMSR alone had 38% greater TWiST than those receiving IFN alone (TEMSR=6.5 months vs. IFN=4.7 months, p=0.00048). There was no significant difference in TWiST between the combination arm and IFN alone (IFN+TEMSR=5.4 months vs. IFN=4.7 months, p=0.1288). Patients receiving TEMSR alone had 23% greater Q-TWiST than those receiving IFN alone (TEMSR=7.0 months vs. IFN=5.7 months; p=0.0015). There was no significant difference in Q-TWiST for the combination arm compared with IFN alone (IFN+TEMSR=6.1 months vs. IFN=5.7 months, p=0.3469). Conclusions: Patients with advanced RCC receiving TEMSR alone had significantly greater quality-adjusted survival than those receiving IFN alone. No significant financial relationships to disclose.