Quality of life in women with early-stage and metastatic hormone receptor-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer receiving endocrine therapy

Early discontinuation of endocrine therapy (ET) is higher among patients with early breast cancer (EBC) compared to patients with metastatic hormone receptor-positive (HR+) breast cancer (MBC). In our clinical experience the reasons for this may include a significant burden of ET side effects impacting quality of life (QOL) in patients with EBC. We hypothesized that QOL is lower in patients with HR + EBC compared to patients with HR + MBC on ET. We conducted a cross-sectional observational study to assess QOL utilizing FACT-ES & EORTC QLQ C30 tools among patients with EBC and MBC receiving ET across 5 Irish hospitals. A total of 417 patients were enrolled-EBC (79% n = 331) and MBC 21% (n = 86). Using the FACT-ES, we found no difference in overall QOL by stage (139.2 vs 141, P = .33). Patients with HR + MBC had a lower symptom burden from ET compared to HR + EBC (61.4 vs 54, P