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Graft-versus-Host Disease

Quality of life associated with acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 38, pages 305–310 (2006)Cite this article

Abstract

Acute and chronic graft-versus-host diseases (GVHD) are associated with increased morbidity and mortality after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HCT). We prospectively measured the quality of life (QOL) of patients undergoing allogeneic transplantation. Ninety-six subjects completed self-assessment surveys before HCT, and at 6 and/or 12 months post-HCT that included the Medical Outcomes Study Short Form 12 (SF12) and the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant scale. Eighty-three percent of survivors responded at 6 and 12 months. Physical and mental functioning assessed by the SF12 was not associated with either acute or chronic GVHD. In contrast, the trial outcome index (TOI) of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Bone Marrow Transplant was sensitive to occurrence of either acute or chronic GVHD. GVHD is a major determinant of the long-term QOL of survivors. The adverse effects of acute GVHD are detectable with the TOI at 6 months post transplantation after which development of chronic GVHD is the most strongly correlated with worse QOL.

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Acknowledgements

We thank the patients who participated in this study. This work was funded in part by P01 HL070149 from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and the Amy Strelzer-Manasevit Scholars Award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Oncology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    S J Lee, V T Ho, C Cutler, E P Alyea, R J Soiffer & J H Antin

  2. Department of Biostatistics and Computational Biology, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston, MA, USA

    H T Kim

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  1. S J Lee
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Correspondence to S J Lee.

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Lee, S., Kim, H., Ho, V. et al. Quality of life associated with acute and chronic graft-versus-host disease. Bone Marrow Transplant 38, 305–310 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1705434

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