Fatigue in long-term survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma; a report from the German Hodgkin Lymphoma Study Group (GHSG).

Although treatment regimens for Hodgkin's lymphoma have become more sophisticated, little is known about the prevalence of fatigue in long-term survivors. Therefore, we investigated the fatigue status of long-term survivors of Hodgkin's lymphoma and a control group using a pre-validated questionnaire. In 1995/1996, we contacted 1981 patients, who were enrolled in the German Hodgkin Studies HD 1-6. All patients were treated according to the treatment protocols HD1-3 (1981-1988) and HD 4-6 (1988-1993). The patients with a current status of complete remission were asked to complete a quality-of-life (QoL) questionnaire (European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Quality of Life Core 30 (EORTC QLQ C-30)) and a fatigue questionnaire (Multidimensional Fatigue Inventory (MFI)). The results were compared with the data from 935 controls, matched for age, gender and living area. Eight-hundred and eighteen questionnaires from the patients were available for analysis. The median time between the end of treatment and completing the questionnaire is 5.2 years. Fatigue levels of patients with Hodgkin's lymphoma are high, even years after treatment. Fatigue dimensions are significantly influenced by several clinical and non-clinical factors. Fatigue levels of Hodgkin's lymphoma patients are significantly higher than those of the control group. Further investigations are warranted to explore the effectiveness of treatment strategies for fatigue.