Bone marrow transplantation vs. high-dose cytorabine-based consolidation chemotherapy for acute myelogenous leukemia. A long-term follow-up study of quality-of-life measures of survivors.

Thirty patients previously treated for acute leukemia were studied on the average of 5-6.5 years postdiagnosis in regard to issues of quality of life. Of these 30, 11 were treated with bone marrow transplantation, 19 were treated with conventional chemotherapy. Overall, significant differences were not found between the two groups in regard to evidence of depression symptoms, multifocal psychiatric symptomatology, or on any subscale of a test evaluating problems and rehabilitation needs of cancer patients. A step-wise regression was done, controlling for baseline covariates that included type of medical treatment, months since diagnosis, type of induction chemotherapy protocol, sex of patient, and age of patient. Significant differences in quality of life were not found between the treatment groups.