Subclinical cardiac toxicity and health-related quality of life (hql) in childhood cancer survivors

Abstract

9018 Background: Despite substantial information about late cardiotoxicity, little is known about its impact on the adolescent/young adult survivor's health-related quality of life (HQL). Using cross-sectional data, we assessed how HQL and New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional classification are related to survivors’ cardiac performance, cardiac risk factors, and treatment history. Methods: HQL indicators were examined in 164 long-term survivors of pediatric cancer (age 16–40 years), who had (n=132; 10 years (mean) after diagnosis of predominantly leukemia or lymphoma) or had not (n=32; 11 years (mean) after diagnosis of predominantly solid tumors) received anthracyclines and/or thoracic irradiation. Survivors underwent extensive noninvasive clinical and laboratory cardiac risk evaluation and completed a self-report questionnaire on selected subscales of the SF-36 (HQL). Results: Reported general health was lower in the cardiotoxic-therapy group (P = 0.05). Sex, current age, time since diagnosis, cardiac function, and cardiac risk factors were independent predictors of HQL subscales and NYHA class in multivariable analysis. Female sex and higher LDL cholesterol interacted to predict diminished reported vitality (P = 0.04) and physical health (P = 0.05) shown in table . Conclusions: Even in the absence of clinically evident cardiotoxicity, cardiac dysfunction and cardiac risk were strongly linked to decreased HQL and NYHA class, particularly among female survivors. Reduced HQL may be an indicator of unidentified sequelae that should be investigated and monitored. No significant financial relationships to disclose. [Table: see text]