Waldenström macroglobulinaemia (WM) is an incurable chronic B-cell malignancy, but highly responsive to treatment. Treatments include fixed-duration chemotherapy and continuous oral chemoimmunotherapy. In this expanding field, it is important to have reliable information on the impact of the various therapies on patients' quality of life (QoL). Patient reported outcome measures (PROMs) are increasingly recognised as important to understand patient experience of disease beyond traditional clinical outcome measures. Four QoL questionnaires (EORTC QLQ-C30 [European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer quality of life core questionnaire], BIPQ [Brief Illness Perception Questionnaire], HADS [Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale], EQ-5D-5L [EuroQoL 5-dimensional descriptive system questionnaire]) are embedded in the UK national WM registry, the Rory Morrison Registry. We reviewed the results from a snapshot of PROMs. As of November 2021, 155 patients completed PROM data with 98% completion rate across all 58 questions. Complete clinical information was available for 52 patients. The majority of QoL questions (69%) failed to elicit a notable median response. Only four questions elicited statistically significant responses when comparing groups, and these were exclusively found in the EuroQoL-5D-5L and HADS questionnaires. Our data suggest that widely used questionnaires may not be suitable for patients with WM. We advocate the development of WM-specific outcome measures to overcome this.
Keywords: Waldenstrom macroglobulinaemia; lymphoid malignancies; quality of life.
© 2022 The Authors. eJHaem published by British Society for Haematology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.