Brothers and sisters of childhood acute leukemia survivors: Their long‐term quality of life and its determinants

• Published in: Cancer medicine (Malden, MA) Vol. 12; no. 5; pp. 6200 - 6212
• Main Authors: Faust, Cindy, Auquier, Pascal, Hamidou, Zeinab, Bertrand, Yves, Tabone, Marie‐Dominique, Ansoborlo, Sophie, Baruchel, André, Gandemer, Virginie, Dalle, Jean‐Hugues, Chastagner, Pascal, Kanold, Justyna, Poirée, Maryline, Sirvent, Nicolas, Plat, Geneviève, Pellier, Isabelle, Michel, Gérard, Berbis, Julie
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States John Wiley & Sons, Inc 01.03.2023; Wiley; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Acute Disease; Adolescent; Adult; Adults; Age; Cancer; Child; Childhood; childhood leukemia; Children; Families & family life; Female; Gender; Humans; Leukemia; Leukemia, Myeloid, Acute; Life Sciences; long‐term follow‐up; Male; Nervous system; Parents & parenting; Quality of life; Quality of Life - psychology; Questionnaires; Siblings; Siblings - psychology; Sociodemographics; Surveys and Questionnaires; survivors; Survivors - psychology; Teenagers; Young Adult; siblings; childhood leukemia; quality of life; survivors; long-term follow-up
• ISSN: 2045-7634; 2045-7634
• DOI: 10.1002/cam4.5355

Background Childhood cancer confront the whole family with a traumatic event. Because brothers and sisters may encounter emotional problems that can remain for a long time and that only few studies have assessed their long‐term outcome, our present objectives were to describe the long‐term quality of life (QoL) of childhood leukemia survivors' siblings and to explore its determinant. Methods Brothers and sisters (from 8‐year‐old) of survivors included in the French LEA Cohort completed a QoL questionnaire (according to their age). Scores were compared with those reported by age‐ and gender‐matched French general population and by survivors. Using a clustering method, siblings were categorized into 3 groups depending on their level of QoL's scores and factors likely to be linked with these clusters were explored with multivariate analyses. Results We included 689 brothers and sisters (313 minors, 376 adults) and the mean time from diagnosis was 13.2 ± 6.6 years. Minor siblings reported higher QoL scores than general population (p < 0.001), but a lower score for relationship with family than survivors (p < 0.001). In adult siblings, Mental Component Summary score was lower than general population (p < 0.001). Level of siblings' QoL was linked with female gender, but no association was found with cancer‐related factors. Conclusion Brothers and sisters expressed a divergent perception of their long‐term QoL depending on their age. To minimize the impact from childhood to adulthood, long‐term attention should also be paid to siblings, often referred as “forgotten children”. Years after diagnosis, brothers and sisters reported a different perception of their Quality of Life (QoL) according to their age, suggesting a deterioration in adulthood compared to their peers. Being female was associated with the lowest QoL level, but no association was found with cancer‐related factors.