Performance Status and End-of-Life Outcomes in Patients with Metastatic Castration-resistant Prostate Cancer Treated with Androgen Receptor Targeted Therapy

Objectives: Androgen receptor targeted therapies (ARTs) are widely preferred over taxane chemotherapy due to their good tolerability and similar efficacy. However, there is a paucity of data that support the use of ART therapy or describe end-of-life (EOL) outcomes in patients with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) with reduced performance status (PS) (European Cooperative Oncology Group [ECOG] ≥2). Methods: We performed a retrospective, single-institution study of 142 patients with mCRPC who received ART therapy between 2010 and 2021. We assessed each record for baseline demographic and clinical information, ART treatment course, and survival and EOL outcomes. Our primary aim was to compare overall survival (OS) between the two groups (ECOG ≥2 vs 0 to 1), and our secondary aim was to describe EOL outcomes. Fisher exact tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to compare baseline characteristics. Cox regression was used to compare OS for patients with ECOG ≥2 at the start of treatment with those who had an ECOG of 0 or 1. Descriptive analyses were performed to assess EOL outcomes between the groups. Results: Patients with mCRPC and decreased PS experienced shorter OS on ART compared with those with higher PS. Moreover, when examining EOL outcomes, a near majority of these patients died in the hospital, with a greater percentage among those with an ECOG ≥2. Conclusion: These findings highlight the need for continual assessment of PS, improved shared decision-making in ART treatment, and additional research exploring the association between PS and EOL outcomes.