To our knowledge, this is the first report in our country evaluating the real-world experience with multimodal prehabilitation in the management of lenvatinib-treated RR-DTC patients. Compared to the SELECT trial (6), in which specific prehabilitation protocol was not applied, our findings regarding AEs appearance were similar with fatigue, hypertension and diarrhea being the most common toxicity events. Although fatigue was frequent in our patients, it was well tolerated and only one-third of the patients was G3. Remarkably, weight loss and anorexia were lower in our cohort (30.7% vs. 46.4%, and 38.3% vs. 50.2%, respectively). Compared to other real-life studies, weight loss and anorexia are also lower in our cohort. ONS and frequent follow-up by a registered dietitian as well as the physical activity program proposed to these patients probably attenuated muscle strength loss and development of sarcopenia related to treatment in our patients.
In one case adrenal insufficiency was diagnosed after the patient reported intense fatigue, which indicates that it is also recommendable to measure cortisol levels in these cases. As patients kept a daily log of blood pressure, we could early detect and treat hypertension, having a lower prevalence ≥G3 (15.3% vs. 41.8%) compared to the SELECT trial.
Since its approval in 2015, lenvatinib has been used as first-line treatment for RR-DTC in our institution. Regarding effectiveness, our results are comparable with other reports based on the clinical practice. In our series, partial response was observed in 46.1% of the patients, higher than the French and Italian studies (31% and 36% respectively) (8,9). Progression at the moment of the results evaluation in our cohort (15.4%) was similar to these studies (14% in both series). Moreover, our PFS rate was one month higher than the one observed in the SELECT study (16 and 15 months respectively) and was also higher when compared to other reported real-world data (8,9,16).
Few studies have reported the use of prehabilitation in thyroid cancer. Prehabilitation was first described by Silver and Baima (17) and defined as the targeted interventions before the beginning of acute treatment aimed to reduce the incidence and severity of current and future impairments related to primary therapy and natural disease evolution. These programs have been used mainly before orthopedic surgery with improvement of health outcomes (18). In oncologic patients, prehabilitation has been used as a useful tool to improve patient's evolution, but mainly before surgical intervention (19), and its positive effects on the quality of life (QoL) as well as general outcomes have been also described in elderly cancer survivors (20). Reports on the benefits of prehabilitation in non-surgical cancer patients are scarce. Limited data for multimodal prehabilitation programs with exercise and nutritional interventions in patients with cachexia reported improvements in physical endurance and depression scores (21). To date, there is no data regarding prehabilitation in RR-DTC.
As mentioned before, real-world studies support the efficacy of lenvatinib in the treatment of RR-DTC, but with the frequent appearance of important AEs that difficult the maintenance of the recommended doses (22-24). Based on this, a multidisciplinary approach with the participation of various specialties is recommended to detect and treat AEs quickly and efficiently, or even better, to avoid or diminish their appearance. In our study, when compared to other studies where prehabilitation was not applied, we showed that it can reduce the incidence of side effects that can be limiting for cancer treatment, such as anorexia and weight loss. In our series, 23% of the patients presented moderate malnutrition in accordance with the results of a prospective Spanish observational study in which it was evidenced that 21.7% of the patients treated with TKI presented moderate malnutrition, and that this was related to a lower survival four years after diagnosis (25). The nutritional intervention in our patients started with the evaluation of the patient’s initial nutritional status and was based on a balanced diet and a sufficient protein intake, increasing energy foods and meal frequency according to ESPEN guidelines (26). ONS were started if necessary. Given that 23% of the patients were malnourished before starting the treatment, periodic screening of nutritional state is necessary from the beginning of the diagnosis to identify which patients need nutritional support.
Moreover, the baseline functional level was also used individually to indicate the prehabilitation exercise program. Physical activity can modulate human proteome and transporters with positive effects in structural and functional muscle performance and counteract the AEs of cancer treatments (27). In our protocol, structured, simple and easy to follow recommendations were proposed for each patient under a personalized approach at baseline and during the follow-up. As previously demonstrated, exercise increases muscle and plasma protein synthesis in younger and older men (28), patients were encouraged to eat protein supplements immediately after strength. Fatigue is known to produce significant negative effect on QoL and its prevention should be a priority in cancer therapy strategies (29). With the combination of nutritional and physical training actions in our group of patients treated with lenvatinib, fatigue and asthenia appeared but with moderate intensity, and no dose reduction or withdrawal of the drug was necessary in relation to this symptom.
Patients suffering from cancer and its related comorbidities and the side effects of cancer drugs had different levels of stress, depression and anxiety that may themselves influence the prognosis (30). In this sense, targeted interventions to increase patient’s psychological resilience have demonstrated an improvement in QoL and adherence to treatments (31). Regarding the psychological actions in our protocol, they focused on the disease acceptance by the patients and their empowerment, so that they can face a treatment that can produce more symptoms than the neoplastic disease itself; early detection and rapid treatment of mood disorders was essential for protecting QoL in these patients. The self-reported level of well-being during the follow-up in our cohort, the tolerance to fatigue and the adherence to the treatment point towards a beneficial effect of the psychological interventions performed.
LIMITATIONS
Our report has some limitations. The main one is that it includes a relatively low number of patients and that its retrospective and observational design but its real-life nature provides, in our opinion, interesting data about the management of TKis in RRTC patients. The lack of a control group was decided for ethical reasons given the expected beneficial effects of the prehabilitation protocol.