PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Martini, Caroline
AU  - Buxbaum, Sabine
AU  - Rodrigues, Margarida
AU  - Nilica, Bernhard
AU  - Scarpa, Lorenza
AU  - Holzner, Bernhard
AU  - Virgolini, Irene
AU  - Gamper, Eva-Maria
TI  - Quality of Life in Patients with Metastatic Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors Receiving Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy: Information from a Monitoring Program in Clinical Routine
AID  - 10.2967/jnumed.117.204834
DP  - 2018 Oct 01
TA  - Journal of Nuclear Medicine
PG  - 1566--1573
VI  - 59
IP  - 10
4099  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/59/10/1566.short
4100  - http://jnm.snmjournals.org/content/59/10/1566.full
SO  - J Nucl Med2018 Oct 01; 59
AB  - In patients with metastatic gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), we evaluated health-related quality of life (HRQoL) from the first peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) to the first restaging and compared the scores with general-population (GP) norms. Methods: The data were from routine HRQoL monitoring using the core quality-of-life questionnaire of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC QLQ-C30). Patients received 4–6 cycles of 177Lu-DOTATATE or 90Y-DOTATOC. To be eligible for analysis, patients had to have at least one HRQoL assessment before PRRT and at least one HRQoL assessment at the end of or after treatment completion. Linear mixed models were used to consider HRQoL changes over time. Results: In total, 61 gastroenteropancreatic NET patients (small-intestine NETs, n = 37; pancreatic NETs, n = 24) were eligible for analysis. Clear improvements from baseline to the first restaging were found for diarrhea in small-intestine NET patients, showing a decrease of 16 points, which represents a moderately large change. We observed a clinically relevant decrease in appetite loss (17 points), but for female small-intestine NET patients only. Other HRQoL changes were also restricted to sociodemographic or clinical subgroups and mainly reflected improvements, except for physical and social functioning, which showed decreasing scores in older small-intestine NET patients. Compared with HRQoL GP norms, patients had impairments consisting of diarrhea; fatigue; appetite loss; reduced physical, social, and role functioning; and reduced global HRQoL. Except for diarrhea and appetite loss, patient scores at the first restaging did not reach GP levels. Conclusion: Our analyses support previous findings of overall stable HRQoL under PRRT. Yet, significant HRQoL impairments compared with the GP and potentially specific subgroup patterns need to be considered.