Cancer Patients Report Quality of Life Benefits for Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Investigators from Italy and the US explore cancer patient experiences related to immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) immunotherapy treatment for a review and meta-analysis appearing in JAMA Network Open. With data for more than 18,700 patients from almost three dozen prior randomized clinical trials, the team analyzed patient-reported outcomes after treatment using ICI alone or in combination with other therapies. Relative to patients who did not receive ICI treatment, the authors found that ICI-treated patients tended to report higher quality of life and longer stretches before their quality of life deteriorated. "The results of this meta-analysis demonstrate a favorable association of ICIs, with patient quality of life compared with control groups that did not contain immunotherapy across a large spectrum of solid tumors, "the authors report, adding that this benefit "was particularly evident when ICIs were administered as monotherapy."