Quality of life in patients with acute myelogenous leukemia in prolonged first complete remission after bone marrow transplantation (allogeneic or autologous) or chemotherapy: a cross-sectional study of the EORTC-GIMEMA AML 8A trial.

A cross-sectional study of quality of life (QOL) was performed in 98 patients in continued first complete remission (CR) for 1-7.4 years, after inclusion in the AML 8A trial which prospectively compared allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (AlloBMT), autologous BMT (ABMT) and intensive consolidation chemotherapy. Several significant differences between the three treatment groups were observed, on the basis of patient self-reports, with regard to somatic symptoms (mouth sores, cough, hair loss, headache), repeated acute medical problems, physical functioning, role functioning, leisure activities and, above all, sexual functioning. There were also significant differences for overall physical condition, and overall quality of life. For all these parameters, the ranking was uniformly AlloBMT lower than ABMT lower than chemotherapy. These differences remain significant after adjustment for time interval between CR and QOL evaluation, sex or age. These results, confirming a higher risk of permanent impairment of QOL after BMT, may have an impact on medical decisions and warrant further studies.