Darden C, Ray D, Goldstein G, Goss D, Garbinsky D, Bennett L, Price M, Thota R. Satisfaction survey of administration modes for Long-Acting (LA) Somatostatin Analog (SSA) therapy in patients with Neuroendocrine Tumors (NETS). Poster presented at the 2019 North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (NANETS) Conference; October 3, 2019. Boston, MA.

BACKGROUND: To describe patient experiences and satisfaction with LA-SSA administration modes in a real-world setting.

METHODS: A longitudinal, prospective, web-based survey was conducted among US patients with NET treated with lanreotide depot (lanreotide) or octreotide LAR (octreotide) within the last 5 days. Patients recruited by the Carcinoid Cancer Foundation completed surveys on prior/current experience and satisfaction at baseline, 14 days after injection (D14), and 28 days after injection (D28) but before next injection.

RESULTS: Of 202 patients who completed the baseline survey (82 lanreotide, 120 octreotide), 148 completed D14, and 124 completed D28. Patients reported consistently high satisfaction levels with their most-recent LA-SSA treatment (85.1% [D14]-91.1% [baseline]) and disease control (66.9% [D14]-70.2% [D28]). More than 90% of patients would recommend their injection to another patient like themselves, and most reported “good” or “very good” experiences overall with their most recent injection (89.5% [D28]-92.1% [baseline]). At baseline, 55 patients receiving lanreotide (67.1%; 95% CI, 0.57-0.77) reported no pain/difficulty sitting/lying down after their most-recent injection compared with 65 (54.2%; 95% CI, 0.45-0.63) patients receiving octreotide. Over the 28 days, 17.1% (95% CI 0.09-0.25) to 27.5% (95% CI, 0.15-0.40) of patients receiving lanreotide reported no pain/discomfort at the injection site from their most-recent injection compared with 15.2% (95% CI, 0.08-0.23) to 20.5% (95% CI, 0.11-0.30) of patients receiving octreotide. Nearly 69% (95% CI, 0.62-0.75) said injections differed based on the nursing staff/person administering the injection, and 72.7% (95% CI, 0.65-0.80) of those patients said this was due to varying levels of nurse knowledge of injection processes.

CONCLUSIONS: Patients are satisfied with their current LA-SSA treatment and reported positive overall experiences with their most-recent injection; however, this study suggests experiences (i.e., pain) may differ by therapy type and person administering the injection. Nurse training (e.g., injection preparation and process knowledge) impacts the overall patient injection experience.