Quality of Life During Induction Treatment of Acute Myeloid Leukaemia a Comparison of three intensive chemotherapy regimens using three instruments for quality of life assessment

Abstract

From a main study describing quality of life in patients with acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) over time, 22 patients who had received induction treatment with POCAL (prednisone, vincristine, doxorubicin, Ara-C, thioguanine), MEA (mitoxantrone, etoposide, Ara-C) or TAD (daunorubicin, Ara-C, thioguanine) chemotherapy regimens were selected. Their quality of life was assessed with Karnofsky performance scale (KPS) and Vitagram as well as with life ingredient profile (LIP), a new instrument for assessing quality of life during chemotherapy treatment. The patients' quality of life was found to be affected for short periods during induction treatment. The POCAL regimen seemed to lead to the least deterioration in quality of life, whereas the MEA treatment had more pronounced effects in this respect. In patients treated according to the TAD regimen gastrointestinal side-effects were mild compared to those of the other regimens. However, to show significant differences between treatment regimens larger multicentre studies are needed. The LIP instrument appeared to display a superior capacity for evaluating the distress of patients compared with the other instruments.