Perspectives and Emotional Experiences of Patients With Chronic Myeloid Leukemia During ENESTPath Clinical Trial and Treatment-Free Remission: Rationale and Protocol of the Italian Substudy

Achievement of deep molecular response following treatment with a tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) allows for treatment-free remission (TFR) in many patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML). Successful TFR is defined as the achievement of a sustained molecular response after cessation of ongoing TKI therapy. The phase 3 ENESTPath study was designed to determine the required optimal duration of consolidation treatment with the second-generation TKI, nilotinib 300 mg twice-daily, to remain in successful TFR without relapse after entering TFR for 12 months. The purpose of this Italian 'patient's voice CML' substudy was to evaluate patients' psycho-emotional characteristics and quality of life through their experiences of stopping treatment with nilotinib and entering TFR. The purpose of the present contribution is to early present the study protocol of an ongoing study to the scientific community, in order to describe the study rationale and to extensively present the study methodology. Patients aged ≥18 years with a confirmed diagnosis of Philadelphia chromosome positive BCR-ABL1+ CML in chronic phase and treated with front-line imatinib for a minimum of 24 months from the enrollment were eligible. Patients consenting to participate the substudy will have quality of life questionnaires and in-depth qualitative interviews conducted. The substudy will include both qualitative and quantitative design aspects to evaluate the psychological outcomes as assessed via patients' emotional experience during and after stopping nilotinib therapy. Randomization is hypothesized to be a timepoint of higher psychological alert or distress when compared to consolidation and additionally any improvement in health-related quality of life (HRQoL) due to nilotinib treatment is expected across the timepoints (from consolidation, to randomization, and TFR). An association is also expected between dysfunctional coping strategies, such as detachments and certain personality traits, and psychological distress and HRQoL impairments. Better HRQoL outcomes are expected in TFR compared to the end of consolidation. This substudy is designed for in-depth assessment of all potential psycho-emotional variables and aims to determine the need for personalized patient care and counselling, and also guide clinicians to consider the psychological well-being of patients who are considering treatment termination. NCT number: NCT01743989, EudraCT number: 2012-005124-15.

Chronic Myeloid Leukemia Patient's Voice About the Experience of Treatment-Free Remission Failure: Results From the Italian Sub-Study of ENESTPath Exploring the Emotional Experience of Patients During Different Phases of a Clinical Trial

Background: The main objective of this study is to gain further insights on how chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) patients involved in an interventional clinical trial with the purpose of reaching treatment free remission (TFR) phase, perceived and experienced TFR failure. TFR failure was defined for the individual patient as either not being eligible for drug discontinuation or as having relapse in the TFR phase with reintroduction of nilotinib treatment. Methods: Using a qualitative approach, out of 25 patients with CML who experienced TFR failure 14 were interviewed. Patients' views and experiences were explored using in-depth interviews, analyzed using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Results: The analysis of the interviews revealed that the experience of the diagnosis seems to have been lived as a traumatic break that has created a dichotomy, like an ambivalence in the ways in which CML patients perceived and experienced the whole disease journey, with contradictory feelings of both positive and negative emotions (e.g., a diagnosis of cancer, that is something distressing and of being afraid of, but also with a treatment and a life expectancies of which being grateful). This ambivalence of feelings was found to give meaning to the way in which patients cognitively and emotionally experienced the different steps of their disease history. Thus, four main issues, corresponding to different steps of the patients' journey, were identified: (1) the moment of the diagnosis, (2) the experience of the illness journey: disease and treatment, (3) the moment of "TFR failure," and (4) the impact of disease, treatment and relapse on the patient's life. Conclusion: This qualitative analysis helps in understanding patients' perspective, both in terms of getting access to the inner subjective experience of having CML and its strict relationship with the involvement in a trial or its cessation. Clinicians should consider that the way in which CML patients feel engaged in a clinical trial, create expectancies about TFR or experience the TFR failure is linked to the process of coping with the diagnosis, which is characterized by ambivalence.