Health-related quality of life in patients with HR+/HER2- early breast cancer treated with ribociclib plus a nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor: results from the NATALEE trial.

Abstract

Purpose: The phase 3 NATALEE trial reported a statistically significant invasive disease-free survival benefit with ribociclib plus nonsteroidal aromatase inhibitor (NSAI) versus an NSAI alone in stage II/III hormone receptor-positive, human epidermal growth factor receptor 2-negative (HR+/HER2-) early breast cancer (EBC). Here we report health-related quality of life (HRQOL) data from NATALEE.

Patients and methods: Patients were randomized to receive ribociclib plus NSAI or NSAI alone. Patient-reported outcome scores (EORTC QLQ-C30 global health status and physical, social, and emotional functioning domains; EORTC QLQ-BR23 breast-symptoms scale; health on a visual analog scale of EQ-5D-5L; and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) were assessed. The prespecified primary HRQOL endpoint was physical functioning. Mean scores and time-categorical and prespecified linear-time repeated-measure models were used to evaluate HRQOL changes during treatment.

Results: HRQOL was evaluated in all patients in the ribociclib plus NSAI (n = 2549) and NSAI alone (n = 2552) arms. Compliance was high in both arms (≈93%-97%). Mean scores did not differ meaningfully from baseline for any analyzed domain. Likewise, neither a meaningful change from baseline (in either treatment arm) nor a difference between arms was observed during treatment in the time-categorical, model-adjusted mean scores for any HRQOL domains-using published thresholds for interpreting longitudinal and between-group differences, with all values being within 0.5 SD of their baseline values. Linear-time regression analysis confirmed these findings.

Conclusions: These analyses of NATALEE show that adding adjuvant ribociclib to an NSAI does not negatively impact HRQOL in patients with HR+/HER2- EBC.