Quality of life in children suffering from acute leukemia

Abstract

Acute leukemia is still one of the most complex and urgent problems of pediatric hematology due to the increasing incidence of the disease, the severity of the disease, the complexity of therapy and its possible complications that aggravate the prognosis of the disease. The quality of life of a child suffering from an oncohematological disease includes a subjective assessment of his well-being, which is more important for him than objective indices.
The aim: obtaining individual information about the child's reaction to the disease and performing polychemotherapy for assessment of not only the indices of physical, but also the psychological, emotional and social condition.
Materials and methods. With the help of special questionnaires, physical, social, emotional activity and activity in kindergarten/school of children suffering from acute leukemia in the period of remission were assessed.
Results. All forms of activity in children suffering from acute leukemia were more or less disturbed even in the remission phase.
Conclusions. Assessment of quality of life is an important criterion for determining the effectiveness of treatment, and it must obligatory be performed in oncohematological patients, since even in the remission phase they need psychological support.
The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of an institution. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies.
No conflict of interest was declared by the authors.