OBJECTIVES: With increasing emphasis on health-related quality of life (HRQoL), EuropaColon, a European CRC patient organization, conducted a European survey on unmet needs and HRQoL in mCRC in 13 countries. The objective is to report interim results with the EORTC quality of life questionnaire (QLQ) for 548 patients from Hungary (H), Poland (PL), Serbia (RS) and Spain (ES).

METHODS: After Institutional Review Boards (IRB) approval, clinicians, nurses with partner organizations of EuropaColon recruited patients. The survey assessed demographics, diagnosis, and treatment and HRQoL using EORTC QLQ-C30. Single data entry was done by EuropaColon. The QLQ-C30 global score, function- and symptom-specific scores, and the financial difficulties item were summarized by country using the “QoLR” package in the R statistical software. Missing data was not imputed. Data were mapped to EQ-5D values using published algorithm for CRC in the UK [Marriott et al, 2017].

RESULTS: Completion rates were over 95% in RS, PL and H and 77-79% in ES. Patient’s position in the treatment pathway varied: in H 92.2% were undergoing, while in RS 25.6% completed treatment. Scores were consistently higher in H and ES, with emotional function affected the most. Global health scores for RS and PL were lower, and symptom scores were higher than reported in mCRC trials. Mean fatigue and pain symptom scores were lower in H/ES and higher in RS/PL. This was maintained in nausea, insomnia, appetite loss, constipation, but not in dyspnea, diarrhea. Differences could be affected by the patients’ place in the treatment pathway. Mean mapped utility scores with standard deviations were 0.81 (SD=0.13), 0.73 (SD=0.16), 0.66 (SD=0.17) and 0.83 (SD=0.12) for H/P/RS/ES respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: mCRC has an important effect on HRQoL, which can differ among real-world mCRC patients and those in clinical trials. Variations across countries and compared to trials require further analysis.