Quality of Life is Similar between Long-term Survivors of Indolent and Aggressive Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma

ABSTRACT

Differences in quality of life (QOL) of long-term survivors of aggressive or indolent subtypes of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) have not been frequently evaluated. We assessed these differences by analyzing results of a large QOL survey of long-term NHL survivors. We hypothesized that the incurable nature of indolent NHL would relate to worse QOL in long-term survivors while the potentially cured long-term survivors of aggressive lymphoma would have better QOL. We found that QOL was similar between the two groups. Results suggest that patients with indolent NHL are coping well with their disease, yet experience some overall feelings of life threat.

KEYWORDS:

• Quality of Life
• non-Hodgkin lymphoma
• indolent
• aggressive

Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the support of the survivors of non-Hodgkin lymphoma who participated in our study. We also thank Dr. Patricia Ganz for her contributions to a review of an earlier draft.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Funding

This research was funded by the National Cancer Institute (R03-CA101492), American Cancer Society (DSW-0321301-SW), The National Center for Research Resources (UL1RR025747), and University Research Council, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.