Facets and determinants of quality of life in patients with recurrent high grade glioma

Abstract

Objectives: To assess patients with recurrent high grade brain glioma with the aim of evaluating facets of quality of life (QOL) and their association with mood, cognition, and physical performance. Methods: Ninety four glioma patients (four groups with different duration of glioma recurrence) were compared with 24 patients with other chronic neurological diseases and 48 healthy subjects. The Functional Living Index-Cancer (FLIC) provided QOL self evaluations, and standardised scales and neuropsychological tests assessed physical performance, mood, and cognition. Results: In glioma patients, factor analysis of the FLIC items documented five domains: Psychological well being, Role/sociability, Inner experience of disease, Isolation/sharing, and Nausea. Higher FLIC total scores were related to better cognition, physical performances, and mood, and lower grading; poorer Psychological well being and worse Inner experience of disease to depressed mood; minor Role/ sociability to worse cognitive and physical performances and higher grading; worse Nausea to longer disease duration. Compared with healthy subjects, all glioma groups were cognitively impaired and more anxious, and two groups with short duration of recurrence were also more depressed. Patients with chronic neurological diseases showed worse mood and cognitive abilities compared with healthy subjects, but performed attention tests better than glioma patients. Glioma and chronic disease patients showed similar FLIC scores and autonomy. Conclusions: These results show that QOL of recurrent high grade glioma patients is multifaceted and determined by multiple factors. Disease severity does not necessarily eliminate the possibility of expressing personal feelings and opinions which could provide criteria for clinical decision making and psychological support.

Bevacizumab plus Radiotherapy–Temozolomide for Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma

“…T umor progression in glioblastoma, the most common primary brain cancer, 1,2 is associated with deterioration in neurocognitive function, 3,4 decreased functional independence, 5 and a progressive decrease in health-related quality of life. 6,7 After surgical resection, the standard of care for patients with newly diagnosed glioblastoma and a good Karnofsky performance score (≥70, on a scale of 0 to 100, with higher numbers indicating better functioning) is concurrent radiotherapy and temozolomide, followed by adjuvant temozolomide.…”

Rehabilitación neuropsicológica en pacientes con tumores cerebrales

“…Contar cartas que se presentan de forma auditiva. Cada carta contiene diferentes palabras (ciudades, países y ríos) y después se presenta un dígito (4,5,6): el sujeto tiene que decidir si el número de letras de la palabra coincide con el dígito que acababan de presentar. 3.…”

“…Una de las manifestaciones clínicas más frecuentes en estos pacientes son los défi-cits cognitivos, que se asocian a su vez a elevada morbilidad y a una negativa en su calidad de vida (3)(4)(5) , los que convierte a los tumores cerebrales en una de las principales patologías neurológicas con este tipo de sintomatología (6) . Sin embargo, los datos de prevalencia sobre los déficits cognitivos en pacientes con tumores cerebrales son muy dispersos en función de los diferentes estudios, oscilando los porcentajes entre el 12% y el 90%, durante todo el proceso de la enfermedad (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17) .…”

Realtionship between depression and meningiomas

“…U nekim studijama incidenca je prilično niska, manja od 10% 8,9 dok kod drugih studija, čak 50% 10 i možda preko 80% 11, 12 pacijenata sa tumorima mozga mogu biti depresvni. Neke studije su grupisale različite tipove tumora zajedno 8,13,14 , a druge su se fokusirale na jednu vrstu tumora 9, 10 pa je prava učestalost depresije kod tumora mozga neizvesna.…”