Quality of Life and Symptom Burden Among Patients with Myeloproliferative Neoplasms: Do Symptoms Impact Quality of Life?

Background:Patients with myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs) are faced with high disease-related symptom burden and quality of life (QoL) decrements. Emanuel et al. (J Clin Onc, 2012) previously showed that symptom burden as measured by the MPN Symptom Assessment Form (MPN-SAF) Total Symptom Score, which is computed as the sum of the 10 most clinically important MPN-SAF symptoms, strongly correlated with QoL (Pearson r=.51; P<.001) as measured by the Global Health Status/QoL (GHS/QoL) scale of the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Questionnaire Core 30 (EORTC QLQ-C30). However, a systematic analysis of predictors of QoL in this cohort has not previously been undertaken. The purpose of this analysis is to assess which of the 18 individual symptoms from the MPN-SAF or summary measures across the symptoms are associated with QoL.