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Quality of life with Brain Symptom and Impact Questionnaire in patients with brain metastases
Ronald Chow1, Saurabh Ray2, May Tsao1
1Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Background:
To examine the baseline characteristics of patients who underwent different treatments for brain metastases.
Methods:
Allocated into group A [whole brain radiation therapy (WBRT) alone], or group B [stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS) or neurosurgery with or without WBRT], brain metastases patients with assigned treatment completed the Brain Symptom and Impact Questionnaire (BASIQ). Items of BASIQ were arranged as a symptom score or function score.
Results:
Lung, breast, melanoma and renal cancer were the most prevalent primary cancer site among the study population, with 91 (53%), 25 (15%), 17 (10%) and 15 (9%) patients, respectively. Baseline BASIQ results were obtained before patients were treated with WBRT, neurosurgery, or SRS. Seventy-six (44%) and 96 patients (56%) were grouped to A and B, respectively. Group A reported lower quality of life (QOL) in all function scores (P<0.0001) and all symptom scores (P values from <0.0001 to 0.005) with the exception of energy (P=0.1).
Conclusions:
Baseline QOL in patients assigned WBRT alone was statistically worse as compared to patients assigned SRS, neurosurgery with or without WBRT.