Children (May 2023)

Quality of Life Outcomes for Patients Who Underwent Conventional Resection and Liver Transplantation for Locally Advanced Hepatoblastoma

  • Zishaan Farooqui,
  • Michael Johnston,
  • Emily Schepers,
  • Nathalie Brewer,
  • Stephen Hartman,
  • Todd Jenkins,
  • Alexander Bondoc,
  • Ahna Pai,
  • James Geller,
  • Gregory M. Tiao

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/children10050890
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 5
p. 890

Abstract

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Hepatoblastoma is the most common malignant liver tumor of childhood, with liver transplant and extended resection used as surgical treatments for locally advanced tumors. Although each approach has well-described post-operative complications, quality-of-life outcomes have not been described following the two interventions. Long-term pediatric survivors of hepatoblastoma who underwent conventional liver resection or liver transplantation at a single institution from January 2000–December 2013 were recruited to complete quality-of-life surveys. Survey responses for the Pediatric Quality of Life Generic Core 4.0 (PedsQL, n = 30 patient and n = 31 parent surveys) and Pediatric Quality of Life Cancer Module 3.0 (PedsQL-Cancer, n = 29 patient and n = 31 parent surveys) were collected from patients and parents. The mean total patient-reported PedsQL score was 73.7, and the parent-reported score was 73.9. There were no significant differences in scores on the PedsQL between patients who underwent resection compared to those who underwent transplantation (p > 0.05 for all comparisons). On the PedsQL-Cancer module, procedural anxiety scores were significantly lower for patients who underwent resection as compared to transplant (M = 33.47 points less, CI [−60.41, −6.53], p-value 0.017). This cross-sectional study demonstrates that quality of life outcomes are overall similar among patients receiving transplants and resections. Patients who received a resection reported worse procedural anxiety.

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