Vocal (views of ovarian cancer patient-show maintenance therapy affects their lives) study: patient preference for treatment formulation and administration

Objectives

Patient preferences regarding management approach following frontline platinum-based chemotherapy for epithelial ovarian cancer(EOC) remain unstudied. Multiple treatment options are available, including PARP inhibitors, so understanding patient preference is critical.

Methods

A cross-sectional survey was completed by US patients with newly-diagnosed EOC eligible for frontline maintenance therapy. Maintenance preference was assessed via time trade-off simulation. Patients selected their preferred post-chemotherapy treatment approach: surveillance, oral daily(QD), oral twice daily(BID), intravenous every 3 weeks(IV-Q3W), or combination IV-Q3W/BID, assuming equivalent efficacy(for all scenarios) and safety(medication scenarios only). Patients were asked to select between a series of maintenance scenarios comparing decreased time to progression(TTP) on their preferred option with constant TTP with alternative options (table 1). Relative disutility of each scenario was calculated.

Results

153 patients completed the survey; 30% were non-White, and 83% had health insurance covering full EOC treatment (table 1). Of all medication strategies, QD treatment was preferred(38%, table 2); patients were willing to trade the least amount of time(2.3 months) without progression on this scenario versus other choices. For patients who preferred to take a medication even when surveillance offered the same amount of time without progression(n=86), the most common reason(66%) was a feeling of taking an active approach to treatment (table 3).

Conclusions

Patients preferred QD treatment more than other medication strategies for EOC maintenance following frontline platinum-based chemotherapy; patients who preferred medication wanted an active treatment approach. Patient preferences should be considered in treatment decisions and further studied. Funding: GlaxoSmithKline (214511/NCT02655016). Editorial support provided by Fishawack Health, funded by GSK.