Among hematopoietic cell transplantation recipients, people who received unrelated donor bone marrow had better psychological well-being, less onerous chronic GVHD symptoms, and were more apt to return to work than those receiving peripheral blood 5 years post-transplantation, according to follow-up of a randomized trial involving 551 individuals.

Investigators recorded patient-reported outcomes at enrollment and 0.5, 1, 2, and 5 years post-transplantation for 102 bone marrow and 93 peripheral blood recipients eligible for assessment. Among the results:

• Average Mental Health Inventory Psychological Well-Being scores were 78.9 for bone marrow recipients, vs 72.2 for those receiving peripheral blood.

• Lee chronic GVHD symptom scores were significantly better for bone marrow recipients.

• Those who received bone marrow were 50% more likely to be working full or part-time than recipients of peripheral blood.

• At a median follow-up of 73 months, there were no between-group differences in survival, relapse, or treatment-related mortality.

Citation: Lee S, Logan B, Westervelt P, et al. Comparison of patient-reported outcomes in 5-year survivors who received bone marrow vs peripheral blood unrelated donor transplantation: Long-term follow-up of a randomized clinical trial. [Published online ahead of print August 11, 2016]. JAMA Oncol. doi:10.1001/jamaoncol.2016.2520.