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Recurrent brain tumour: the impact of illness on patient's life

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Abstract

Purpose

Despite advances in therapies that offer improved survival rates, clinical course of brain tumours leads to a progressive functional deterioration in patients with modifications in their psychological reaction to the disease. Patients with brain tumours are rarely assessed for quality of life and psychological variables, and even fewer studies have assessed patients who have experienced a recurrence of brain tumours. Therefore, the aim of the present study is to investigate the patients with recurrent brain tumours and their reaction to the illness.

Method

We enrolled 81 patients with recurrent CNS tumours. Karnofsky Performance Status scale (KPS) was used to evaluate functional status of patients; the multidimensional aspect of quality of life was assessed through “Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy-Brain” (FACT-Br), “Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale” and “Psychological Distress Inventory”. These were all used as tests of psychological well-being.

Results

Distress and almost all mean FACT-Br subscale scores seemed to be significantly lower in patients, in comparison with normative data. Surprisingly, the emotional well-being mean score was significantly higher in our recurrence sample than in patients with brain tumours at first diagnosis. Anxiety seemed not to be influenced by a relapse diagnosis; instead, depression was higher and differed significantly from normative data. Low correlation between KPS and FACT-Br total and some sub-scores was found.

Conclusions

Apparent dissociation between patients' judgment on their quality of life (bad except for emotional) and their reported distress (low) is the most intriguing finding, suggesting highly preserved co** strategies in the emotional sphere, despite intact judgment and disease awareness.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors are free of professional areas of conflict of interest such as financial remuneration as employee, consultant or subcontractor with companies. The authors certify that this work was not previously sent to other journals

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurooncology, Fondazione IRCCS Istituto Neurologico C. Besta, Via Celoria, 11, 20133, Milan, Italy

    Elena Lamperti, Claudia Yvonne Finocchiaro, Antonio Silvani, Andrea Botturi, Paola Gaviani & Andrea Salmaggi

  2. Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milan, Italy

    Giuseppe Pantaleo, Claudia Yvonne Finocchiaro & Lucio Sarno

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  1. Elena Lamperti
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  2. Giuseppe Pantaleo
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Correspondence to Elena Lamperti.

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Lamperti, E., Pantaleo, G., Finocchiaro, C.Y. et al. Recurrent brain tumour: the impact of illness on patient's life. Support Care Cancer 20, 1327–1332 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1220-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-011-1220-y

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