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Abstract
Objective: Studies have shown that a proportion of patients with aggressive non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) treated with standard chemotherapy will have long-term life expectancy comparable to those in the age-adjusted general population. This systematic literature review summarizes current literature regarding health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of long-term (≥2 years) survivors of aggressive NHL.
Methods: Electronic databases (without restriction on years) and abstracts from four major oncology and HRQoL conferences from 2014 to 2017 were searched. Studies were included if HRQoL or health utility was assessed at least 2 years after NHL diagnosis. Studies focusing on central nervous system lymphoma, or indolent NHL, were excluded. Results were categorized relative to baseline (improvement, deterioration or no change) and compared to the general population (better, comparable or worse).
Results: Fourteen studies met the inclusion criteria. Twelve studies included ≥1 HRQoL instrument, and two measured health utilities using EQ-5D. Half of the studies showed improvement (5/10) and half no change (5/10) in overall HRQoL. Compared to the general population, overall HRQoL was more comparable when assessed at ≥3 years from baseline (3/3 better or comparable) versus assessment at <3 years (2/3 better or comparable). Six studies reported on the physical HRQoL domain with improvement in 4/6 studies and no change in 2/6 studies.
Conclusions: HRQoL of NHL survivors may improve from baseline and becomes more comparable to general population HRQoL with longer survival. Overall HRQoL improvement is driven mostly by improvements in the physical domain.
Transparency
Declaration of funding
This study was funded by Kite, A Gilead Company.
Author contributions: V.W.L. and A.P. conceived the study topic. B.B. developed the systematic literature review with input from V.W.L., A.P. and J.E. All authors reviewed this manuscript and provided feedback.
Declaration of financial/other relationships
V.W.L. and A.P. have disclosed that they are paid employees of Kite, A Gilead Company. B.B. and J.E. have disclosed that they are employees at Stratevi which was retained for this work.
CMRO peer reviewers on this manuscript have received an honorarium from CMRO for their review work, but have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge Erin Williams for her contributions as the second independent reviewer.
Previous presentation: Preliminary results of this research were presented as a poster at Lymphoma and Myeloma 2017 Conference, New York, NY, USA, 26–28 October 2017.