Screening for distress and quality of life in pediatric patients after allogeneic or autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation using a self-reporting instrument, blood stress biomarkers and an expert rating scale (PO-Bado).

The maximum of psychological and somatic distress, as well as the lowest quality of life, ranges between day 0 and + 10 after both allogeneic and autologous pediatric HSCT. While somatic distress is similar during autologous and allogeneic HSCT, the allogeneic group seems to be affected by higher psychological distress. Larger prospective studies are needed to evaluate this observation.