Aim: This study aims to evaluate Japanese patients' preferences in first-line therapy choice for advanced non-small cell lung cancer(NSCLC)with epidermal growth factor receptor(EGFR)mutations.
Methods: A cross-sectional discrete-choice experiment was conducted on advanced NSCLC patients in Japan. Participants completed the online questionnaire that included different levels of 5 treatment attributes: time to disease progression, chance of rash, next therapy option, frequency of health care visits and administration route. The primary analysis estimated the relative attribute importance. The preferences of EGFR mutation-positive patients were compared with those of EGFR mutation-negative/unknown patients to observe whether preference differs by mutation status.
Results: A total of 158 participants completed the survey. The analysis on the overall study population revealed next therapy option(mean relative attribute importance[SD]: 39.30 [17.07])as the most important attribute, followed by time to disease progression(25.52[10.51]), chance of rash(21.58 [11.74]), with administration route(7.63[6.99])and frequency of health care visits(5.96[3.40])the least preferred. The results in the subgroups by EGFR mutation status were similar.
Conclusion: Next therapy option is the major influencing factor for treatment choice of molecular targeting therapy among advanced NSCLC patients in Japan, emphasizing the importance of communicating the next treatment options to patients at the time of their first treatment.