Anorexia, pain and peripheral neuropathy are associated with a decrease in quality of life in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer receiving outpatient chemotherapy - a retrospective observational study

Hironori Fujii; Maaya Koda; Shiori Sadaka; Koichi Ohata; Hiroko Kato-Hayashi; Hirotoshi Iihara; Ryo Kobayashi; Takuma Ishihara; Shinya Uemura; Takuji Iwashita; Hideki Hayashi; Tadashi Sugiyama; Masahito Shimizu; Akio Suzuki

doi:10.1186/s40780-021-00210-1

Anorexia, pain and peripheral neuropathy are associated with a decrease in quality of life in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer receiving outpatient chemotherapy - a retrospective observational study

J Pharm Health Care Sci. 2021 Aug 2;7(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s40780-021-00210-1.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pharmacy, Gifu University Hospital, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu, 501-1194, Japan. h_fujii@gifu-u.ac.jp.
² Laboratory of Pharmacy Practice and Social Science, Gifu Pharmaceutical University, Gifu, 501-1196, Japan.
³ Department of Pharmacy, Gifu University Hospital, Yanagido 1-1, Gifu, 501-1194, Japan.
⁴ Gifu University Hospital, Innovative and Clinical Research Promotion Center, Gifu University, Gifu, 501-1194, Japan.
⁵ First Department of Internal Medicine, Gifu University Hospital, Gifu, 501-1194, Japan.

Abstract

Background: Cancer chemotherapy usually improves clinical outcomes in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (APC), but can also cause moderate-to-severe adverse events (AEs). We investigated the relationship between moderate-to-severe AEs and quality of life (QOL) in patients with APC who received outpatient chemotherapy.

Methods: We recruited APC patients who received outpatient chemotherapy in Gifu University Hospital between September 2017 and December 2018. Adverse events related to chemotherapy were assessed by a pharmacist collaborating with a physician using common terminology criteria for AEs (CTCAE) ver 4.0, and QOL of patients was self-assessed by patients using the five-level EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L Japanese edition 2). Associations between the EQ-5D-5L utility value and serious AEs were assessed using proportional odds logistic regression.

Results: A total of 59 patients who received 475 chemotherapy cycles were included. The proportional odds logistic regression indicated that grade ≥ 2 anorexia, pain and peripheral neuropathy were significantly correlated with a decreased EQ-5D-5L utility value. Pharmaceutical intervention for these AEs significantly improved the patients' EQ-5D-5L utility value.

Conclusions: Anorexia, pain and peripheral neuropathy were significantly associated with a decrease in QOL. It is assumed that appropriate pharmaceutical intervention with particular emphasis on these AEs can improve the QOL of pancreatic cancer patients receiving outpatient chemotherapy.

Keywords: Adverse events related outpatient cancer chemotherapy; Pancreatic cancer; Proportional odds logistic regression model; Quality of life; Retrospective observational study.