We explored changes in perceptions of cure among patients with genitourinary (GU) cancers starting Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) therapy.
This longitudinal study assessed patients before starting therapy and 3-months later with a questionnaire that included patient perceptions of ICIs and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) Anxiety scale. General linear modeling was used to investigate changes in expectation of cure over time, and chi-square tests were used to determine the association between expectation of cure and perceptions of ICIs and anxiety.
A total of 45 patients were recruited (73% male, 84% diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma). The proportion of patients who possessed an accurate expectation of cure increased over time (55.6%-66.7%, P = .001). An accurate expectation of cure was associated with lower rates of anxiety over time. Patients with inaccurate expectation of cure reported more severe side effects and worse self-reported ECOG score at the follow-up assessment (P = .04).
We found that patients with GU metastatic cancer treated with ICI therapy have increasingly accurate expectations of cure over time. Accurate expectation of cure is associated with decreased anxiety. Further research is needed to fully explore this dynamic over time and help inform interventions that can help patients develop accurate expectations.
Clinical genitourinary cancer. 2023 Jun 02 [Epub ahead of print]
Cristiane Decat Bergerot, Errol J Philip, Ameish Govindarajan, Daniela Castro, Jasnoor Malhotra, Paulo Bergerot, Sabrina Salgia, Meghan Salgia, Nicholas Salgia, JoAnn Hsu, Luis Meza, Zeynep B Zengin, Sandy Liu, Alex Chehrazi-Raffle, Abhishek Tripathi, Tanya Dorff, Sumanta Pal
Centro de Cancer de Brasilia, Instituto Unity de Ensino e Pesquisa, Oncoclinicas, BrasÃlia, DF, Brazil., University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, CA., Department of Medical Oncology & Experimental Therapeutics, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA., Western University of Health Sciences, Pomona, CA., University of Miami School of Medicine, Miami, FL., Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY., Department of Medical Oncology, City of Hope Orange County Medical Center, Irvine, CA., Department of Medical Oncology & Experimental Therapeutics, City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center, Duarte, CA. Electronic address: .