The phase III, randomized, open-label CheckMate 025 study showed an overall survival benefit in patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma treated with nivolumab versus everolimus. Here, we review the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) results of this trial, in which nivolumab was associated with significant improvements in HRQoL, with more patients having a clinically meaningful HRQoL improvement and a shorter time to onset of improvement compared with everolimus. Further exploratory analysis suggests a positive correlation between baseline HRQoL scores and overall survival. These results support the use of HRQoL as a valuable measure of patient perspective that could translate into better clinical outcomes and should be taken into account during treatment selection.
Keywords: Clinical outcomes; Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy–Kidney Symptom Index–Disease-Related Symptoms questionnaire; Health-related quality of life; Nivolumab; Renal cell carcinoma.