Patient preferences for adjuvant therapy in renal cell carcinoma: a discrete-choice experiment

To quantify patients' preferences for adjuvant renal cell carcinoma (RCC) treatments.

Preferences were elicited using a discrete-choice experiment requiring RCC patients to choose between 2 hypothetical treatments. Data were analyzed using random-parameters logit and latent-class models.

Patients (n = 250) preferred treatments that increase disease-free and overall survival (OS), are taken less frequently, require no concomitant medication, have a shorter duration, and have lower side-effect risks. The analyses also highlighted their willingness to make tradeoffs between these benefits and risks. Patients were generally tolerant of increases in the risks of treatment-related severe diarrhea, dizziness, and fatigue and were willing to accept increases in these risks in exchange for improvements in overall or disease-free survival. Latent-class analysis identified 3 classes: class 1 (37.5%) and class 2 (26.9%) preferred not to opt out of treatment and prioritized increased OS and disease-free survival, respectively; class 3 (35.5%) preferred to opt out and prioritized mode, duration, and risks.

Heterogeneity suggests patient-physician discussions are important when considering RCC treatments.