Objective: Multiple myeloma (MM) is an incurable hematological cancer and its treatment is geared to promote better Health-Related Quality of Life (HRQoL). We aimed to assess HRQoL and compare scores between variables on therapeutic regimens and polypharmacy in MM patients.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was performed from April/2019 to February/2020 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. HRQoL scores were obtained by the QLQ-C30 and QLQ-MY20 instruments. Data were retrieved from interviews and medical records. Therapeutic regimens were grouped into thalidomide-containing regimens; bortezomib-containing regimens; bortezomib and thalidomide-containing regimens; other therapeutic regimens, and remission group. We performed univariate analyses by the Mann-Whitney method and adopted the Kruskal-Wallis test for multiple comparisons. Robust multiple linear regression was used to determine the association between independent variables and the HRQoL scores.
Results: The sample included 225 participants and most patients (65.3%) were on active treatment and had worse scores concerning future perspective. Polypharmacy was associated with worse scores on all scales in the univariate analyses. We observed a difference in the global health and body image (p < .05) scales in the multiple comparisons with therapeutic regimens. The global health scale difference was found between groups with other regimens and the remission group (p < .05). The difference between the bortezomib and thalidomide-containing regimens and remission group was not statistically significant (p = .077) in the body image scale. The multiple linear regression maintained the association of polypharmacy with worse HRQoL scores.
Conclusion: We identified an independent association between HRQoL and polypharmacy in MM patients. However, there was no difference between the evaluated regimens, suggesting they are equivalent in Brazil about HRQoL.
Keywords: Health-related quality of life; multiple myeloma; polypharmacy; therapeutic regimens.