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Quality of Life is Significantly Better with PEG-Interferon than with the Standard Formulation: Presented at ASH
By Patrice Olson
PHILADELPHIA, PA -- December 9, 2002 -- Overall quality of life, including physical, emotional and social well-being, is significantly better for patients maintained on polyethylene glycol interferon (PEG-IFN) than the standard formulation of interferon-alpha (IFN).
The finding was presented here during the 44th annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology held December 6-10.
Dr. Raymond Powles and colleagues from the Royal Marsden Hospital, Sutton, England, performed a crossover study in 60 patients with multiple myeloma. The study patients, who had been maintained on a steady dose of IFN, were randomly allocated to continue with IFN maintenance therapy for three months and then crossed over to PEG-IFN, or to receive PEG-IFN for three months, after which they were crossed over to IFN.
Toxicity was assessed throughout the study and quality of life was assessed using European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (ORTC) scales prior to randomization, at the end of the first crossover interval, and at the end of the six-month study.
"At the time of enrolment, 55 percent of patients were in complete remission, 23 percent in partial remission, and 22 percent were minimal responders to previous therapy," study authors pointed out.
The authors found that PEG-IFN was associated with a statistically higher global quality-of-life score. There was a mean difference of 8.33 between PEG-IFN and IFN scores.
"There was also a statistically significant improvement in functional scales," the authors added. The mean difference in scores for physical symptoms while on the two treatments was 3.52, while the mean difference in emotional scores between PEG-IFN and IFN was 4.4, and 8.49 for social scores. These were all statistically in favor of PEG-IFN. Fatigue, pain, and appetite all improved on PEG-IFN relative to IFN as well.
In contrast, PEG-IFN did not affect cognitive function, nausea, insomnia, constipation, diarrhea, or financial worries.
"Early discontinuation of IFN due to toxicity or injection compliance could adversely affect a patient's ability to maintain duration of remission," the authors noted "If the same clinical benefit can be achieved with long-acting IFN [ie, PEG-IFN], the requirement for multiple injections may be reduced and may result in greater patient compliance," they concluded.
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