Distress, Health-Related Quality of Life (HQOL) and Confidence in Survivorship Information (CSI) in Older (≥60 Years) Hematopoietic Cell Transplant (HCT) Patients

Background: The use of HCT to treat older (≥60 years) patients with hematological malignancies has markedly increased in recent years, however, the long-term effects of HCT on distress, psychosocial functioning, and HQOL in older HCT survivors is largely unknown. Though older HCT survivors have a higher risk of disease recurrence, they may have less access to resources and subsequently experience more pronounced late effects of disease and treatment. Confidence in Survivorship Information (CSI) in this specific age group has not been reported.

Methods: We conducted a secondary analysis on a subgroup of patients enrolled in INSPIRE (NCT01602211) and PCORI-SCP (NCT02200133) clinical trials. Eligibility criteria for inclusion include HCT patients who were ≥ 60 years at time of transplant performed in 2003-2014, survived ≥ 1 year post-transplant with no evidence of disease relapse or secondary cancers. Patients were eligible for inclusion irrespective of transplant type (autologous or allogeneic), diagnosis, donor source or conditioning regimen. Primary endpoint was distress level in older HCT survivors; secondary endpoints included CSI and HQOL outcomes. We collected baseline distress level as measured by Cancer and Treatment Distress (CTXD) score, HQOL (measured by SF-12 Mental and Physical Component Summaries (PCS/MCS) and CSI (measured by a 15-item CSI questionnaire). Sociodemographic, disease and transplant factors were extracted from medical databases. Nonparametric (Wilcoxon rank sum/Kruskal-Wallis) test was conducted for comparing 2 or 3 groups. Spearman correlation and univariate linear regression model were used to evaluate associations between CTXD/CSI and PCS/MCS. Bonferroni correlation was used to adjust for multiple pairwise comparisons within age group.

Results: A total of 567 patients satisfied the eligibility criteria and were included in this analysis. Median age at time of HCT was 69 years with 57% male; two-thirds were autologous HCT recipients. Table 1 details patient characteristics. The median CTXD score for older HCT survivors was 0.7 (range 0-2.7, SD 0.6) indicating low/insignificant level of distress post-HCT. 20-30% of HCT survivors reported moderate distress when asked about concerns regarding relapse risk, loss of energy and functional decline. Type of transplant (auto vs allo), age group (<65 years, 65-70 years, ≥70 years), and time from HCT (≤2 years vs > 2 years) showed no apparent effect on reported distress level. CSI median score was 1.4 (range 0-2) which remains consistent with the score reported previously by the original trial including all age groups, indicating that older HCT survivors may have similar level of confidence in their survivorship information as their younger counterparts. Of note, close to 20% of the older HCT survivors reported poor CSI when asked about strategies for prevention and treatment of long-term effects of HCT and when asked about their confidence in availability of community resources to deal with long-term HCT complications. No statistically significant correlation was identified between CSI in older survivors and transplant type, time from HCT, or age group. HQOL outcomes indicated a median PCS of 48.2 (range 21.1 - 62.9) and a median MCS of 54.7 (range of 14.9 - 67.2). Interestingly, even though not reflected on the overall median CTXD and CSI scores for this cohort, a significant individual association between CTXD/CSI and PCS/MCS measures of HQOL was found (Figure 1). A subgroup analysis conducted on older alloHCT recipients confirmed the same findings of clinically insignificant distress level (mean CTXD ≤1.1) while having a similar level of CSI when compared to all age groups. Interestingly, time from HCT (≤2 years vs > 2 years) showed no significant effect on distress level reported by older alloHCT survivors, and cGVHD status did not correlate with CTXD or CSI scores nor with PCS/MCS in older alloHCT survivors.

Conclusion: This is the largest study to date to investigate patient-reported distress, CSI and HQOL in older HCT survivors. Our data indicate that older HCT survivors have low levels of stress after HCT and had confidence in survivorship information in most aspects of their care. However, targeted interventions should focus on improving strategies for prevention, treatment and availability of community resources to deal with late effects of HCT; aspects reported as points of low CSI by older HCT survivors.

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