Michelle Hildebrandt, PhD, and Goldy C. George, PhD, of The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, spoke about their findings from a cohort study analyzing the distribution, factors associated with, and long-term impact of diminished health-related quality of life (HRQoL) at diagnosis in adolescent and young adult (AYA) cancer survivors. 2,609 AYA cancer survivors which were treated at MD Anderson between 2000-2016 and who had survived at least 2 years were analyzed. HRQoL was assessed at diagnosis with the SF12v1 questionnaire. Physical composite summary (PCS) and mental composite summary (MCS) scores were generated from SF12 responses; PCS or MCS less than 50 indicated “poor” HRQoL. Significant results include differences in HRQoL at diagnosis by tumor types, with sarcoma and CNS tumor patients reporting poorer HRQoL, and differences by race and ethnicity. For example, African American AYA survivors had a higher burden of poor physical HRQoL at diagnosis and differences in survival by race and ethnicity were observed even when stratified by HRQoL. This interview was recorded at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022, New Orleans, Louisiana.
