Quality of life self-reports from 200 brain tumor patients: comparisons with Karnofsky performance scores

To test a method of assessing quality of life, 200 primary brain tumor patients in an outpatient clinic answered a 20-minute questionnaire covering ten aspects of quality of life. These results were compared with Karnofsky performance scale (KPS) scores, taking age into account. Among patients with KPS 90-100 (two-thirds of the patients), the KPS alone was difficult to interpret. The questionnaire, with its specific questions related to the key dimension of well-being, provided a more definitive assessment of status. The central importance of well-being was supported by its strong statistical relationships with other dimensions. Particularly, well-being was related to freedom from depression (p < 0.0001), active social life (p < 0.0001), energy (p < 0.01), and fewer symptoms (p < 0.05). The KPS was more useful in differentiating the other one-third of the patients (KPS 50-80) but was highly sensitive to age. KPS scores, therefore, may have been unreliable. Depression, reported by half of the patients, was not predicted by the KPS when age was excluded from the regression analysis but was related to the scores in well-being and socializing. Neither depression, well-being, nor socializing was influenced by age. Thus, the questionnaire directly assessed these central, emotionally based variables, particularly among patients with satisfactory KPS. Such an assessment is especially crucial as a supplement to the KPS in evaluating brain tumor survivors, whose emotional well-being is often severely challenged by treatment after surgical excision.