Health-related quality of life and cognitive failures in patients with lower-grade gliomas treated with radiotherapy

Abstract

Purpose: Patients with lower grade (grade 2 and 3) glioma (LGG) frequently experience prolonged clinical course after multimodal therapy (including surgery, radiotherapy (RT), and chemotherapy). There is therefore significant concern about the potential long-term impact of the disease and treatments on quality of life (QOL) and cognitive functioning. In this context, we evaluated health related QOL and cognitive failures in LGG patients previously treated in our RT department.

Patients and methods: Adult LGG patients previously treated with RT were prospectively included. Patients were evaluated based on standardized questionnaires [i.e., EORTC QLQ-C30, EORTC QLQ-BN20, and cognitive failures questionnaire (CFQ)].

Results: Forty-eight patients were included. Median time elapsed since the end of RT was 59.5 months (range: 4-297). Based on EORTC QLQ-C30 and QLQ-BN20, the most prevalent HRQOL issues were impaired cognitive functioning (50% of the patients), impaired emotional functioning (47.9%), financial difficulties (43.7%), fatigue (43.7%), future uncertainty (39.6%), and impaired physical functioning (35.4%). Based on the CFQ, 35.4% of the patients showed increased tendency to cognitive failures.

Conclusion: Patients with LGG frequently experience impairments in HRQOL and cognitive failures after treatment (including RT). Further efforts are therefore warranted to improve the QOL and cognitive outcome of these patients.

Keywords: Cognition; Gliome; Lower-grade glioma; Quality of life; Qualité de vie; Radiotherapy; Radiothérapie.