Life quality of patients with metastatic renal cell carcinoma and chemo-immunotherapy--a pilot study

Renal cell cancer (RCC) accounts for 2-3% of all malignant tumors in adults. Due to the indolent course of disease and the few signs and symptoms in early stages the majority of patients presents with metastatic disease when diagnosed. The aims of systemic therapy of RCC are therefore palliative. Recent research shows the key role of immune mechanisms in the course of RCC. The therapeutic use of cytokines, mainly interleukin-2 (IL-2) and interferon-alpha (IFN) results in improvement of remission rates. To date it is unknown to what extent multiple cycles of chemo-immunotherapy alter the life quality (LQ) of patients with metastatic RCC. We monitored life quality during therapy in a three-armed protocol with interferon-alpha 2a, interleukin-2, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), isotretinoin (ISO) and vinblastin (VBL). Life quality was impaired by two factors: response to chemo-immunotherapy and therapy side effects. A steep decrease of LQ-scores was seen in week 1 of therapy, LQ improved then for patients with stable disease (SD) and partial remission (PR) but not for those with progressive disease (PD).