Sanchorawala V, et al. – Health–related quality of life (HRQoL) was appraised in patients treated for AL amyloidosis between 1994 and 2014 with both high dose melphalan and stem cell transplantation (HDM/SCT) or non–SCT chemotherapy regimens. For treating this rare condition, using HRQoL assessments in every physician visit or treatment appeared to provide valuable insights.

• Researchers administered the SF-36v1 Health Survey (SF-36) to assess HRQoL during clinic visits.
• They used analysis of variance to compare pre- and post-treatment HRQoL within each treatment group to an age- and gender-adjusted general population (GP) normative sample.
• It was reported that Cox proportional hazard models were fit to examine associations between pre-treatment levels of HRQoL and mortality within 1 and 5 years after initiating specific treatment regimens (HDM/SCT: n = 402; non-SCT chemotherapy regimens: n = 172).
• Results revealed significant improvements following treatment in vitality, social functioning, role-emotional and mental health, among patients who received HDM/SCT.
• They observed an association between worse pre-treatment SF-36 physical component scores and a greater risk of mortality in both treatment groups and follow-up periods (P < 0·001 for both).