Tyrosine-kinase inhibitors and patient-reported outcomes in chronic myeloid leukemia: a systematic review

The main objective of this systematic review is to quantify and to summarize all studies that have included health-related quality of life (HRQOL) or, any other type of patient-reported outcomes (PROs), in patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). Nine papers were found and none of these were published before 2003. Overall, 3290 CML patients were enrolled in the studies reviewed. Four studies reported HRQOL data on patients treated with imatinib only. The most solid data in this area indicate that CML patients receiving TKIs have a worse HRQOL profile when compared to their peers, without cancer, in the general population and interventions to improve HRQOL outcomes are thus needed. Our review revealed the paucity of evidence-based data in this area. However, HRQOL assessment in these studies emphasize the unique information provided by the patient's perspective. Urgent efforts are needed to provide solid PROs data to complement current knowledge on clinical efficacy of TKIs.