Abstract
Abstract Background Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is the most common type of childhood cancer, with dramatic improvements in treatment outcomes the last decades. Objective The purpose of this paper was to assess if ALL during childhood causes a negative impact on health-related quality of life (HRQL) in the years following treatment, compared to either healthy controls or population norms. Method Following search term in PubMed; ((ALL OR acute lymphoblastic leukaemia) AND (quality of life OR HRQL) AND chil* AND surviv*), including studies published the last decade and in English. Results 16 eligible studies were found. In eight of the studies ALL-survivors were found to have poorer HRQL compared to the controls/norms. Two of the studies reported better HRQL amongst the survivors, and in the remaining studies HRQL was similar in both groups. Two studies showed both worse and better HRQL, with discrepancy between reports from the patients themselves and their parents. ALL-survivors who had been treated with stem cell transplantation reported poorer HRQL than ALL-survivors who had not been transplanted. Conclusion Studies on HRQL in ALL-survivors are scarce and show various results. That may be explained by different measures, composition of groups or cultural differences. Still, the majority of studies report poorer HRQL in ALL-survivors compared to controls.