The impact of follicular lymphoma on health-related quality of life

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this study was to determine whether there was a relationship between disease activity and health functioning, as measured by a range of patient-reported outcome (PRO) measures in patients with follicular lymphoma (FL). Patients and methods: A total of 222 patients with FL were recruited from eight sites across the UK and they completed a number of PRO measures. The participants were analyzed across five disease states: 'active disease-newly diagnosed', 'active disease - relapsed', 'partial response', 'complete response' and 'disease free'. The relationship between these disease states and their level of health functioning was assessed as well as the relationship between being 'on' or 'off' chemotherapy and disease state. Results: In terms of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), participants in the relapsed category had the lowest mean physical well-being, emotional well-being, functional well-being and social well-being score. In a regression analysis, the 'active disease-relapsed' group acted as a significant predictor for each PRO variable. In addition, the remission group acted as a significant predictor of high anxiety scores as measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale. Conclusion: The results of this study demonstrate that various aspects of patient-reported health outcomes differ according to disease state in patients with FL. For those patients who have relapsed, they are more likely to experience worse HRQoL and other patient-reported health outcomes than patients newly diagnosed, in partial or complete remission or when completely disease free. © The Author 2007. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society for Medical Oncology. All rights reserved.