EORTC Research Fellow wins New Investigator award at 2012 ISOQOL Conference

Divine E. Ediebah, Research Fellow in the Quality of Life Department (QLD) at EORTC Headquarters, received the New Investigator Award at the 2012 International Society for Quality of Life Research Annual Conference (ISOQOL). The New Investigator Award is based on Divine’s research efforts in the QLD concerning biostatistical analyses on clinical trials data in the Patient Reported Outcome and Behavioral Evidence (PROBE) projects and working in collaboration with the EORTC Lung Cancer Group. Specifically, the award recognizes his analysis of joint modeling of longitudinal health-related quality of life (HRQoL) data and overall survival in non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.

In cancer clinical trials, outcomes may co-vary; treatment-related impairment of HRQoL may hasten death, and thus mask survival benefits of treatment. Divine analyzed data from a clinical trial comparing gemcitabine+cisplatin (arm B) and paclitaxel+gemcitabine (arm C) versus paclitaxel+cisplatin (arm A, the standard arm) in 480 advanced stage NSCLC patients. HRQoL was assessed via the global health status/QOL (GHS) scale of the EORTC QLQ-C30 questionnaire at baseline and after each chemotherapy cycle. Joint modeling was used to assess the combined effect of treatment on HRQoL and survival.

Results of the analysis suggest that part of the survival benefit of a new treatment can be masked by the negative effect that treatment has on HRQoL. Up to 27% of the theoretical treatment efficacy was lost through impaired HRQoL affecting survival. The results of this analysis also support the association between HRQoL and overall survival: increased attention to effective supportive care during treatment could potentially correct negative HRQoL effects and unmask survival benefits.

Dr. Andrew Bottomley, Assistant Director and Head of the EORTC QLD said “this is excellent work, and gives that chance for young researchers to see how important the work that Divine is undertaking and which will hopefully can lead to improvements in patient care.”

Other QLD presentations at ISOQOL include

An EORTC Phase III trial of Adjuvant Whole-Brain Radiotherapy Versus Observation in patients with 1 to 3 Brain Metastases From Solid Tumors After Surgical Resection or Radiosurgery: Quality-of-Life Results. Bottomley et al. on behalf of the EORTC Radiation Oncology and Quality of Life Groups.

An international prospective study establishing minimal clinically important differences in the EORTC QLQ-BM22 and QLQ-C30 in cancer patients with bone metastases. Bottomley et al.

Does change in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) score predict survival? Sensitivity analysis of a lung cancer RCT. Ediebah, Coens, Zikos, Ringash, Quinten, Gotay, Greimel, Osoba, King, Flechtner, Taphoorn, Schmucker von Koch, Weis, Cleeland, Reeve, Smit, and Bottomley on behalf of the Lung Cancer Cooperative Group, QLD and PROBE.

The Added Clinical Value of Health-Related Quality of Life Research: Major Outcomes of the Pooled Analysis of Phase III Randomised Clinical Trials, Zikos, Ediebah, Coens, Quinten, Ringash, Reeve, Cleeland, Flechtner, Gotay, Greimel, King, Osoba, Schmucker von Koch, Taphoorn, Weis and Bottomley on behalf of the EORTC and PROBE

Joint modeling of longitudinal health-related quality of life data and overall survival. Ediebah, Coens, Zikos, Ringash, Quinten, Gotay, Greimel, Osoba, King, Flechtner, Taphoorn, Schmucker von Koch, Weis, Cleeland, Reeve, Smit, and Bottomley on behalf of the Lung Cancer Cooperative Group, QLD and PROBE

Endorsing high quality standards in developing measures to assess QoL in cancer patients: the Data Repository initiative on behalf of the EORTC QLG.

Martinelli, Velikova, Johnson, Grønvold, Coens, and Bottomley.

A review of the existing EORTC quality of life measures in Spanish: response scales evaluation. Arnott (Presenter), Koller, Greimel, Bottomley, Whittaker and Kulis on behalf of the QLG.

Linguistic differences between translations of quality-of-life questionnaires: a comparative study of the English and Polish versions of EORTC QLQ-C30. Kulis (Presenter), Arnott, Whittaker, Greimel, Bottomley and Koller on behalf of the QLG and PROBE

A systematic review of HRQOL in Small cell Lung cancer clinical trials. Zikos, Coens, Ghislain, Ediebah, Sloan, Quinten, Koller, van Meerbeeck, Flechtner, Stupp, Pallis, Czimbalmos and Bottomley on behalf of the EORTC.

Evaluating the response category translation of the EORTC QLQ-C30. Scott, Etta, Aaronson, Bottomley, Fayers, Groenvold, Koller, Kulis, Maraias, Peterson, and Sprangers on behafe of the QLG and QLD.