Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to cross-sectionally assess quality of life (QoL) in survivors of childhood Hodgkin's disease (HD) in a cohort treated for HD in the successive German–Austrian therapy studies HD-78, HD-82, HD-85, HD-87, HD-90, HD-95, respectively, in accordance with the HD-Interval-Treatment recommendation between 1978 and 2002.
Patients and methods
Data from QoL questionnaires were provided by 1,202 (66 %) of 1,819 invited survivors. These included the EORTC QLQ-C30 and socio-demographic variables. Data of a homogenous sub-sample (n = 725) defined by age (21–41 years) and event- free-survival (no progress, relapse or secondary malignancies) were compared to an age-adjusted German reference sample (n = 659).
Results
While the global and physical QoL scores were comparable to those of the general population, survivors' mean scores were more than 10 points lower on the EORTC QLQ-C30 scales “Emotional” and “Social Functioning”. On the symptom scales, higher mean scores, exceeding 10 points, were obtained for the scales “Fatigue” and “Sleep”. In general, there was a gender effect showing lower functioning and higher symptom levels in women, most prominently in the group of young women (21–25 years). The results within the group of HD survivors could not be associated with the time since treatment, the age of HD survivors at diagnosis or the extent of therapy burden.
Conclusion
Clinicians engaged in follow-up care should be sensitive to aspects of fatigue and related (emotional) symptoms in HD childhood cancer survivors and encourage their patients to seek further support if needed.
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Abbreviations
- AG:
-
Age group
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- C:
-
Control group
- CCSS:
-
Childhood Cancer Survivor Study
- CCy:
-
Chemotherapy cycles
- CNS:
-
Central nervous system
- CF:
-
Cognitive functioning
- DAL:
-
German Working Group of Leukemia Research
- EF:
-
Emotional functioning
- Gy:
-
Gray
- GPOH:
-
German Society for Pediatric Hematology and Oncology
- HD:
-
Hodgkin's disease
- M:
-
Mean
- PF:
-
Physical functioning
- QoL:
-
Quality of life
- SD:
-
Standard deviation
- SF:
-
Social functioning
- RF:
-
Role functioning
- TB:
-
Therapy burden
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Acknowledgments
We are indebted to all participating survivors and/or parents as well as the data managers in this investigation, especially Angelika Görgen. This work was funded by a project grant of the German Childhood Cancer Trust (Deutsche Kinderkrebsstiftung), grant number: DKS 2005/04.
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Calaminus, G., Dörffel, W., Baust, K. et al. Quality of life in long-term survivors following treatment for Hodgkin's disease during childhood and adolescence in the German multicentre studies between 1978 and 2002. Support Care Cancer 22, 1519–1529 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-013-2114-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-013-2114-y