Background :
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) is the most common cancer in children with an improved outcome at present. Because of its increased cure rate (almost 80%), more emphasis has been placed on reducing the toxicities of therapy, improving quality of life (QoL) during treatment and minimizing the long-term effect of therapy. So, the study was aimed at understanding QoL during different phases of chemotherapy.
Methods :
This cross-sectional study was conducted from 1st April, 2011 to 30th September, 2011 in the Department of Pediatric Hematology and Oncology, Bangladesh Medical University, Shahbag, Dhaka. Total 42 children of 2?16 years with ALL were included in this study. QoL scores were collected using the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory? (PedsQL?) 4.0 Generic Scale and the Pediatric Quality of Life Inventory (PedsQL?) 3.0 Cancer Module proxy report. Medical and demographic data were collected from medical records and interviewing guardians. Data were processed and analyzed using SPSS (version 17.0).
Results :
PedsQL overall was 62.03 (range 58.28?64.69), physical score 67.22 (range 53.13?71.88), psychological score consisting of emotion, social and school score was 60.00 (range 56.67?60.00), emotional score 72.50 (range 70.00?80.00), social score 100 (range 90.00?100.00) and school score 2.5 (0.0?20.0).
Social score was best but school score was worst. No predictor was found that significantly worsened QoL. Scores were similar in different phases of treatment.
Conclusion :
QoL in children with ALL has been described and there are no predictors of worse QoL. QoL was also similar in different phases of treatment. School summary score was worst, so special attention should be provided to improve the schooling of children.