Factors influencing health-related quality of life for patients after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation: a single institution analysis

Abstract

IntroductionMore than 5,000 patients receive hematopoietic stem cell transplantations(HCT)annually in Japan, and the number of allogeneic HCT(allo-HCT)has increased in particular.Originally, HCT was only used for young patients who did not to respond to chemotherapy, but now additional types of disease and a broader age range are suitable for transplants because of improved medications and methods for HCT. As the number of long-term survivors is increasing rapidly, improvement in the health-related quality of life(QOL)after HCT is necessary. Non-myeloablative transplants were successful after 2000, and HCT was performed on patients aged 50 years or older. In the last five years, 40% of allo-HCT patients are 50 or older. Compared with ten years ago, the numbers of HCTs for both leukemia and malignant lymphoma among patients aged 50 years or older have risen by 123% and 62%, respectively.1 Thus, progress in HCT treatment has resulted in a diversified social background of HCT patients, which suggests that the optimal methods for long-term careand improvement of QOL have also changed. Previously, many QOL studies on HCT patients were performed using the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36Health Survey(SF-36) . Previous studies reported that all of the average SF-36 subscales were below Japanese standards.Moderate to severe chronic graft-versus-host disease (cGVHD)as defined by the National Institutes of Health