QUALITY-OF-LIFE IN ADULT CANCER-PATIENTS TREATED WITH BONE-MARROW TRANSPLANTATION - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

There is now an increasing interest in measuring quality of life (QOL) in cancer patients. Information on psychosocial issues and the patien ts' QOL give a more comprehensive evaluation of the treatment outcome than survival and relapse free intervals alone. Bone marrow transplant ation (BMT) has become a standard, curative treatment in haematologica l diseases such as leukaemia and lymphomas. However, serious physical and psychological side effects are experienced by some patients. A rev iew of the literature on QOL in adult BMT patients shows that the deve lopment in post-BMT research on psychosocial factors is slowly progres sing. Most studies are retrospective with small sample sizes, and only five of 48 studies fulfilled our preset quality criteria. Identificat ion of factors that are predictive for poor post-BMT outcome might pro vide a basis for targeted support programmes. This underlines the nece ssity of undertaking prospective studies using reliable and well-valid ated methods for measuring QOL in this patient group.