Patients recovering from stem cell transplantation for leukemia or lymphoma can take three to five years to fully recover, according to a study published in the May 19 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT) is used to treat hematologic malignancies; this study is one of the first to determine a well-defined recovery rate. The study's lead author was Karen Syrjala, associate member of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center and director of the center's Biobehavioral Sciences Program in the Clinical Research Division. Syrjala is also an associate professor of medicine in the UW School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences.

Syrjala and her colleagues examined survivors' recovery of physical and mental health and their return to work after HCT treatment. They followed 319 patients from before the transplantation to five years after the procedure.

Patients recovered physically earlier than they rebounded mentally or returned to work, with most taking between three and five years to recover completely. Only 19 percent of survivors fully recovered by one year after the HCT treatment, while 63 percent had recovered by the five-year mark.

Many patients suffered from some form of depression during the treatment or recovery period, researchers found. At some point during the assessment period, 22 percent of patients had symptoms of clinical depression and another 31 percent had mild depression symptoms. Researchers also found that patients who started the HCT treatment with higher levels of depression, lower levels of physical function, and lower satisfaction with social support were more likely to have an impaired recovery.