Health-related quality of life and treatment satisfaction in Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) patients on ibrutinib compared to other CLL treatments in a real-world US cross sectional study

The objective of this study was to describe real-world health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and treatment satisfaction of ibrutinib-treated patients with CLL compared to a reference group. This study was completed in two parts. The first portion (Norming Study) was a US online survey conducted to serve as a reference population. The Norming Study included a total of 139 patients with CLL, excluding those treated with ibrutinib: 64 were treatment naive (Tx naive), 36 were 1(st) line (1L), and 38 were in or had completed ≥2 lines (2L+) patients with CLL. The second portion (CLL Ibrutinib Study) included 1L and 2L+ ibrutinib patients with CLL treated for ≥6 months in which 118 patients (1L n = 88 and 2L+ n = 30) completed the study. Respondents completed demographic and clinical information and the following HRQoL surveys: (Short Form-12v2(®) Health Survey [SF-12v2], Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-General [FACT-G], FACT-Leukemia [FACT-Leu] Functional Assessment of Chronic Illness Therapy [FACIT]-Fatigue, and Cancer Therapy Satisfaction Questionnaire [CTSQ]). Higher scores indicate better HRQoL/treatment satisfaction. Differences in effect sizes between the two samples at the group level were calculated using Hedges’ g. Medium to large positive effects were seen in the CLL Ibrutinib group on several measures compared to the Reference Study groups. The FACT-G total score was 89.2±11.1 for CLL Ibrutinib Study patients compared to 75.8±22.6 CLL Norming Tx naïve patients, 61.3±21.8 in 1L, and 61.7±20.7 in 2L+. Similar trends were seen with FACT-Leu total score and FACIT-Fatigue. CLL Ibrutinib Study patients scored higher on all CTSQ domain scores compared to the CLL Norming patients treated with other CLL therapies. We found that Ibrutinib-treatment had better HRQoL and treatment satisfaction compared to patients receiving other therapies, irrespective of line of therapy.