Health-related Quality of Life (HR-QOL) and Chronic Health Conditions in Survivors of Childhood Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) with Down Syndrome (DS): A Report From the Children's Oncology Group

• Authors: Kris Ann P. Schultz, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota; Lu Chen, Children’s Oncology Group; Alicia Kunin-Batson, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota; Zhengjia Chen, Emory University; William G Woods, Emory University; Alan Gamis, Children’s Hospitals and Clinics of Minnesota; Toana Kawashima, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center; Kevin C. Oeffinger, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center; H. Stacy Nicholson, Phoenix Children’s Hospital; Joseph P. Neglia, University of Minnesota
• Journal Title: Journal of Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
• Volume: Volume 39, Number 1
• Publisher: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins | 2017-01-01, Pages 20-25
• Type of Work: Article | Post-print: After Peer Review
• Publisher DOI: http://doi.org/10.1097/MPH.0000000000000707
• Subjects: Health Sciences, Oncology; Health Sciences, Medicine and Surgery
• Keywords: Science & Technology; Life Sciences & Biomedicine; Oncology; Hematology; Pediatrics; leukemia; Down syndrome; quality of life; chemotherapy; ACUTE LYMPHOBLASTIC-LEUKEMIA; NEUROCOGNITIVE OUTCOMES; CANCER-GROUP; THERAPY; PROTOCOLS; DIAGNOSIS

Abstract

Survival rates for children with Down syndrome (DS) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) are high; however, little is known regarding the health-related quality of life (HR-QOL) of these survivors. Individuals who survived Z5 years following diagnosis of childhood AML were invited to complete parent or patient-report surveys measuring HR-QOL and chronic health conditions. In total, 26 individuals with DS had a median age at diagnosis of 1.8 years (range, 0.77 to 10.9 y) and median age at interview of 15 years (range, 8.3 to 27.6 y). Participants with DS and AML were compared with AML survivors without DS whose caregiver completed a HR-QOL survey (CHQ-PF50). In total, 77% of survivors with DS reported Z1 chronic health condition compared with 50% of AML survivors without DS (P=0.07). Mean physical and psychosocial QOL scores for children with DS and AML were statistically lower than the population mean, though not discrepant from AML survivors without DS. Although the overall prevalence of chronic health conditions in survivors with DS is higher than in survivors without DS, prior studies of children with DS have reported similarly high rates of chronic health conditions, suggesting that AML therapy may not substantially increase this risk.