The Humanistic Burden of Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC): A Systematic Review of Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL) Literature.

Bryan M Bennett,Yong Yuan,Jane R Wells,John R Penrod,Charlotte Panter

doi:10.3389/fphar.2017.00339

Abstract

Background: Little is known about the humanistic burden of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), specifically the impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this systematic literature review was to explore the impact of SCLC on HRQoL and the patient reported outcomes (PROs) used to capture this impact.Methods: We conducted a systematic search of Medline®, Embase, and PsycINFO, oncology organization websites and conference proceedings within the past 10 years. Articles reporting HRQoL outcomes of SCLC patients were selected.Results: Twenty-seven eligible publications were identified. Global or overall impact on HRQoL (n = 21) was reported most often, with considerably fewer reporting individual domains that comprise HRQoL. Results indicated that HRQoL was negatively impacted in SCLC patients in comparison to the normal population in most domains. Overall, the domains measuring physical functioning and activities of daily living were most impacted. However, results on cognitive and emotional functioning were inconclusive. The impact on HRQoL may be least in both limited disease and extensive disease (ED) SCLC patients who have responded to treatment, and greatest in ED patients who were treatment naïve. The most frequently used PROs were the EORTC QLQ-C30 core cancer instruments, the lung cancer specific module the EORTC QLQ-LC13, LCSS, and EQ-5D.Conclusion: There exists a paucity of reporting on SCLC HRQoL outcomes. This extends to the reporting of domain level scores and by patient sub-group. Greater reporting at a granular level is recommended to allow for more robust conclusions to be made.

Highlights

Lung cancer is the second most prevalent form of cancer with more than 1.8 million new cases being diagnosed annually (Siegel et al, 2015)
Some key characteristics of SCLC, such as rapid progression and earlier metastasis (World Health Organization, 2012), differentiate it from the other forms of epithelial lung cancers known as nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC)
The 27 publications included in this review reported results from interventional clinical trials assessing health-related quality of life (HRQoL) as an endpoint (n = 18); 11 were randomized but not controlled (Thatcher et al, 2005; Eckardt et al, 2006; Reck et al, 2006, 2012; Hermes et al, 2008; Lee et al, 2009; Le Pechoux et al, 2011; Nagel et al, 2011; Wolfson et al, 2011; Satouchi et al, 2014; Sekine et al, 2014), four were randomized controlled trials (RCTs) (Giaccone et al, 2005; O’Brien et al, 2006; Bottomley et al, 2008; Slotman et al, 2009) and three were nonrandomized interventional studies (Fennell et al, 2007; Araujo et al, 2009; Eckardt et al, 2009)

Summary

Introduction

Lung cancer is the second most prevalent form of cancer with more than 1.8 million new cases being diagnosed annually (Siegel et al, 2015) It is the leading cause of cancer mortality, being responsible for 19.4% of all cancer related deaths (World Health Organization, 2012). Little is known about the humanistic burden of small cell lung cancer (SCLC), the impact on health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The aim of this systematic literature review was to explore the impact of SCLC on HRQoL and the patient reported outcomes (PROs) used to capture this impact.

Methods

Results

Conclusion