Overall, 1312 patients had been enrolled in the three studies. Of
these, 291 patients (22.2%) were excluded from this analysis: 164
patients (12.5%) for missing baseline QoL questionnaire, 70 (5.3%)
for missing data about supportive drugs and 57 (4.3%) for missing
both sets of information. Thus, a database of 1021 cases was used
for all the analyses (Figure 1).
Baseline characteristics are described in Table 1. Overall median
age was 72 years (range 35–86) and was strongly affected by 696
patients (68%) older than 70 enrolled in the ELVIS and MILES
trials. Most of the patients were males (83%), had metastatic
disease (72%, with bone metastases in 22%) and a good
Performance Status (0 or 1 in 83%). Limited differences were
observed among trials, but for bone metastases, more frequent in
adult subjects.